A devil may cry
by ajattra
Summary: The Ultimate Craft: A gift of the gods of old. Amon had to make a deal with the devil to keep this power at bay, but can he alone stand against Robin's fate as the Eve of witches? COMPLETE.
1. Ring of Fire

A devil may cry: '_Ring of Fire'_

This is your moment of glory. This is your memorial. The painful memories of something you lost will empower you to exceed your limits and rise above them. You shall become anew.

But there was no becoming. There was only hollow grief and her voice was just a whisper in the wind. The pain of loss had captivated her so she only lay still and observed the skies above with tears running down her cheeks.

This is how he found her, entangled in limbs as she tried her best to force herself in a fetal position into a smaller and smaller space like she might disappear from sight if she squeezed herself into less and less until she would be no more. Impossible to calm down and therefore unimportant enough for him to just leave her like that, he thought at first.

But he had never seen anyone so autistic, so caught in the webs of emotions and the ruling fragment of reality: So stuck in a single relentless moment and helplessly bound still with tape made from nerves that wouldn't function.

Did he take pity of her? Is that why he decided to share that moment? Or was it perhaps because of something so unexpected that one doesn't dream of thinking it until a proper time has passed and a certain veil has been lifted from the way of one's eyes?

Did he look past his own ambition and self for once? Was it that while truly understanding the nature of her, he suddenly felt something crumble his certainty in looking towards her as only an object?

He had done that once already – become misguided by his affection for her and carried out the required action to save her as well as accepted the outcome of that action. After that he was confused and uncertain for a long time, but then… he was all of the sudden back on the road again, gaining the upper hand and needed control.

For some time now he rejected the impulses he had once allowed to delude him even though he still acted against his original purpose.

But now… watching her so weak and so very alone he couldn't resist his scattered mind from accepting the advice that felt so natural inside. So he kneeled and peeled the terror from her simply by bringing her close. Her ear against his calm, steady heartbeat so, that she could synchronize hers with his example, and return.

The humming of the trees - that strange music that came from the wind caressing their hollow insides - cropped his reality for that moment. He felt her squeeze his clothing the way someone holds onto anything just to prove that they exist. For a split second he could share with her: the world's change into a painting of Gogh: The saturation of each color until everything melted into a picture that was exposed to too much light: The shape of everything twisting on the way there and radiating back something quite like the original, but only more powerful and incomplete. He could see God's sketch.

In the horizon of shimmering light that was too bright and too pure the sun went down escaping this horror and painting her light orange with its dying red. A cry emerged. Was it his or hers - nobody knows.

In the middle of this vision, this bloody revelation of the true face of the universe the way she was beginning to see it, he journeyed his lonesome path to preserve her in her cocoon and keep her from hatching.

This was the power of the Ultimate Craft, the curse of it.

Witches were once worshipped as Gods because of this! Because they could see how every line in every structure was drawn therefore begetting some new. They could see the eraser making the lines incomplete while tearing the texture apart. Because they felt what others dread the most: the emptiness of every gesture and act and the lingering presence of something indefinable, the breath of the maker of this fine collage.

Like all art this one projected its maker's soul at its most beautiful. The answer to the question forever asked was there for him to see as well. Why was there such evil and malice? Because every creation also has its flaws and every soul possesses both darkness and light.

Finally like the beating drum of one's heart the shades and the contrast of _the real world_ began dissolving away. Slowly.

_Boom_

_Boom_

_Boom_

A fading heartbeat, a dying sound or perhaps… just a simple wasp in the nearness becoming more and more estranged. A distant voice – muffled. And then without realizing – puff. Gone.

He blinked his eyes several times before believing that his eyes had been veiled with the lie once more. Pale and chilling winds were the only things touching him actively anymore for she'd grown motionless and still. Sweat ran down the valleys on his back and the air made each drop so blunt that sharp sensations followed their path.

Exhaustion dominated his quickened breath. His flavor escaped him in every drop of perspiration that made his hair heavy. It took Amon an extended moment to gather himself together before he began to worry over his little charge. Her pulse was lazy now, barely existent when he felt it through her skin - Poor thing must've passed out.

With casualty that walked alongside with experience he lifted her into his arms. Her hair-do had broken down at some point and pale orange locks fell as flames over his arms when he repositioned her to insure her comfortableness. His heart ached with this omen: her flames eating his black shield, but he pushed his worry aside. He was to look after her and insure that she could take the power given to her without losing her empathy and sense of right and wrong.

To Amon the unconscious Robin was light to carry across the yard of their current hideout. During the past months her abilities had been growing each moment. She had wandered away from his care many times and then returned with the kind of dead sorrow imprinted on her face that he knew the mysterious Craft was gaining more room in her. He'd promised to end her life if she ever lost control. He'd said he'd do it for the sake of every human.

He'd do it for their friends and family and he'd do it for all the strangers in the world, who didn't deserve to live, but he had never said that he'd do it _for her sake_. Perhaps… that was changing slowly as well.

She'd turned sixteen last month - Sixteen years old and so worn inside. He was beginning to sense the injustice of her having this ability of the Ultimate Craft. He was beginning to plan for her future gladly forgetting the fact that she could be stripped from everything in just a moment. He was beginning to question… yes that had to be the root of it.

After isolating them both in the function of protecting her his motives had gone through a metamorphosis of sorts and he no longer awaited for a quick end. What he had seen just now… he was beginning to understand her and from what he saw he now knew that she wasn't meant to be kept from the world. No, that misassumption had only brought misery upon her. She needed to be among the very people she was meant to bring hope to.

**The Eve of Witches**… that is what Robin had been born as. That is why she'd been wanted dead and been hunted for. She was to be the spring of compassion and the light when none could be found in the heart of a fallen witch, who no longer recognized the value of life. She was to be the cure for those who became intoxicated from their power - Those who were addicted to it so desperately.

Amon stopped for a moment after reaching the door. He wasn't sure what he was really doing this all for, but maybe he could find out if they returned to Japan. Maybe it was essential to Robin's recovery to have STN accept her for what she was and provide her some remedy for these terrible seizures. Then she might not fall. She might last until she was older and stronger.

But if she were to fall now all would be lost and she would truly deserve the epithet 'Devil Child'.

He looked at her once more. Was their return really something she would allow him to do? Would she trust STN enough for them to try and develop something to block the Ultimate Craft for the time being? Would she even want to?

With a heavy heart he made his decision on the matter.

She too would know life…

* * *

_Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the Coven sank in the dark_

_Silence - Pure_

_No more heartache_

_No fires in my mind_

_Awaken - Pure_

'**Captivate me'**

* * *

**A/N:** Poem in the premonition is Kitty's "Awakening"


	2. Captivate me

A devil may cry: '_Captivate me'_

_Breathe_

In his dream the sky was the clearest blue – such a pleasing pastel shade that was slowly darkening into an evening blue: Silky blue of comfort.

_- there is nothing _

_  
_Sand beneath his feet shifted as the restless wind guided it forwards. Slender trees arched above him to hide him from the eyes of the unwanted. As he stepped forward he felt the soft sand move between his toes and its coolness comforted him unexpectedly.

_no_ _memory  
no pain  
no past reflections_

A rain of ruby red leafs like drops of blood fell on him making him lift up his gaze. A strange kind of loneliness ran through his veins, filled him and overlooked him slowly tightening its tendrils around him so he could be buried into this emptiness until time would end. Had it always been this close to ending and he'd just shut his eyes and looked past this knowledge?

_  
painted lips  
no longer speak to me_

Everything was tainted, wrong somehow. Should he be alone or with someone? Shouldn't he be here with her?

A painful memory faded in and out. She was speaking something he'd refused to listen and now those words were beyond his reach.

_  
Silence_

He turned to see what hid behind his back. This silence was too much for him to bear, but there was nothing there. Just another horizon, another shivering image of the lie he'd learned to look past.

_Nothing_

What if he concentrated? Could he see something then? He pushed his eyelids down, let the unspoken wish overwhelm him and opened his eyes again. And what he saw was one line in its making. It broke before him.

_I am free_

_Pure_

_Alone and  
unblemished_

* * *

Reoccurring dreams: He'd been having one ever since that time on the lake. His mind told him he was just trying to process the enormity of that event. That voice of his primal instincts said it was something more. He was always silencing that voice, so he vanquished the dream from his thoughts and seated himself in his bed. 

This darkness was thick and veiled. It was still early. He ran his hand through his hair while inhaling the musky air that was unaware of the anticipation inside of him.

There was nothing to do today. For once he could live in this moment instead of anxiously glaring at the next always planning every move beforehand. Life as the hunted party had taught him to run through every day and never truly rest and just allow things to happen at their own time.

He'd been so busy controlling everything around him that…

Amon ended the thought before he could finish it. Then he carefully placed it close to his heart where he kept all other things he secretly cherished, but sought out to forget.

Things like his mother, whose empathy had been drained from her. He closed his eyes when the sound of the gunshot and her final wail ran through his head as a painful echo.

The root of his pain: The dilemma.

How could he ask such things from Robin when it was uncertain if he too could become what he hated the most? Some seeds never gained a craft so his future indeed seemed bright. Still the possibility remained as a loose thread in this unfinished cloth.

He diverted his thoughts towards Robin again and conjured up a vague image of the sad-eyed girl, who'd strangely become the answer that constantly lingered on his lips: Her light brown hair like flames over his arm eating through his defenses and her petite figure shivering in terrible fear when that cursed Craft gave her the ability to see the unseen.

That short moment of madness when he'd gone against all his beliefs to save her and confide in her as if she could've magically understood everything he had to confess at that time.

"_I do not see you as a witch Robin."_

Honesty.

Now he could only think he'd done wrong that time by saving her. He'd allowed her to endure so he was the one, who would have to see to the consequences, because he'd claimed her that day. He'd tried to fight her after learning what she truly was, but her blind faith in him had crumbled his determination and so he was caught in this cycle that had made him her guardian.

Because he could no longer escape it, he'd decided to wait. Wait for his release. …All until he'd shared her pain and seen past her defense.

Solomon. They had told him everything and made his honesty seem so futile back then. He'd felt betrayed. She'd fooled him. He'd taken his gun in anger. Yet what he had seen through her eyes had planted doubt in his mind and cleansed her from vicious words.

Maybe she really was as innocent as he'd first thought? Maybe he'd been lashing himself for nothing? Maybe…

The sound of the handle turning pushed his mixed emotions aside and he pointed his concentration towards the door that was being opened. He opened his eyes. It was a muffled sound and not coming from this room…

_Robin…_ Amon realized and rose from the bed. She too was up at the strangest hour always walking silently between rooms. Sometimes he could swear seeing her fleeting figure when he first opened his eyes in the dark. He knew she watched him in his sleep some nights without knowing how he knew this to be true. Perhaps he'd just become sensitive to her after fighting her fights for her.

Sensitive? No, he was just observant and it was relevant to be able to recognize her in a crowd.

How is it that for every statement he made to prove that she was somehow special in his eyes, he always had several counterstatements to deny it with? Didn't he always prepare himself excuses when he got too close to deducing something correctly?

After getting dressed in silence Amon exited the room to make himself some coffee. Heavy steps forward, one at a time.

This really was one of _those mornings_, he noticed irritated already. That strange feeling you have as if the sun dominated everything today and all you want is to fall through a hole in the sky and vanish from this heat that makes every word lose its weight and every gesture become empty was in the air.

Out of habit he looked inside the living room where she already sat, just as always, combing her hair that shone like pale gold: Precious and shy. Her hair had gotten longer as it had stayed uncut for several months now.

She was hunching. Her hands held the small comb between her long fingers. Breaking the surface of that silk sea she pulled the comb down and opened the knots in that wet hair. Like a harpist playing the most sinful tunes in history.

When a drop of water fell over her leather shoe it broke the illusion and Amon could finally startle awake. His glare followed the black leather shoe to the black knee sock and from there to her knee and the skirt and the shirt and back up to her face that was without mistake. She was horrifyingly alike to the woman who'd given birth to her sixteen years ago. Horrifyingly unaware of what went on around her… or was she?

When she looked at him with her Craft-filled eyes she had to see he didn't return her feelings. She had to see that he was all stone.

"Amon." And suddenly she rose and those innocent green orbs were once again targeting him. Then her slightly surprised look was replaced with a faint smile. "Morning."

Her hand moved to put her long hair away from her chest and that act revealed to him her wrist. Needle marks. Vaccinations: Remedy for the dangerous Craft. None had healed.

Then between them all: a little metal plate. Tracking device like she was a lab rat they needed to check upon: An experiment.

"Morning." he replied stiffly and then walked away from the room. Nothing had changed. She was still as lovely in the morning as always. Unaware of that radiance she spread. He should've become blind to it by now.

The scent of fresh coffee made his senses numb for awhile. Coffee was one of those things to block everything away - Such a strong flavor. He lifted the cup to his mouth letting the taste make it better again, but when he lowered the cup that had previously blocked his view to the door she was standing right there.

"Amon-" hesitation was clear in her voice. Also fear was present. And all the sudden she simply straightened her back and let go of that pained expression she'd carried around way too often. Her grip on the old metallic pendant with an ogham circle in the middle tightened.

Her voice wasn't so angelic anymore, but rough, cutting. "What did Kane say?"

Kane… Yes… Everything did seem to circle around him now as well…

Amon hesitated. He hadn't wanted to tell her, but now that she asked… He took another sip of his coffee.

Watching a witch die had become painful to Robin - Kane's fate proved that. The spring of empathy: Fate was in motion. This day was indeed a heavy one.

"Seeing you made him accept his fate." he finally spoke to end the blaming looks she was shooting him with. Yet speaking the truth was like clawing his chest.

"He said that I couldn't hold back the wave... _That the Eve would be with or without me._"

She rushed out of the room. Her fleeing steps were so sharp. Amon jumped up rushing after her. "Robin!" he yelled, but got no reply as the door closed right before him.

In the stairway her steps grew more and more distant and gone again. Alone he turned from the door.

She'd come back… eventually.

Some day those loving eyes would look back in hate. Then there'd be no more forgiveness for the mistakes. No more talking. No more standing by the flames she made for him.

The black sun in his chest had become heavy.

* * *

_Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the Coven sank in the dark_

_no_ _life for me _

_just_

_**wine**_

_spilling_

_**crows**_

_fill the sky_

_black_ _as anything _

_  
crazy_

_breake_

'**Dance of Curse'**

* * *

A/N: Poems used were Kitty's "Awakening" & "Break" (premonition)


	3. Dance of Curse

A devil may cry: '_Dance of Curse'_

_i_ _always lose control._

Why did it always go down like this when they were together? Why were there always such sharp thorns in his flowers? He dug into her flesh and remained there reminding her every time she moved.

The air around was sultry. A gentle drizzle wet her skin making water run from her hair to her neck and down her arms to her fingertips where the heavy tears fell to the sand road underneath her. Water was everywhere flooding her shoes and adding to the misery inside.

Breathing hurt, hurt so much. It felt like air was there to puncture her lungs. Like there was no grater feeling than the guilt inside. Memories of a man's dying form were blinding her. His final words forgiving her betrayal, tainting the one he blamed for it.

And when she was far enough from him and his strains she stopped running. While anchored into him there was no overcoming Amon.

She was no longer moony towards the sad blue morning. How could she bear dreams when he was there to hunt them from her?

Robin raked through her messy hair that was still wet. Misplaced, that was what she was now, over a year after her heritage had been revealed to her. Methuselah had been the root of this, the messenger, but some of the old woman's words had remained a mystery even to this day.

Such a long time ago… and now she was left contained by the man she loved. Maybe Amon was still hunting her down, doing his best in killing resistance and that peaceful sensation in her chest when she spotted something to be joyous about. It was plausible that he hated her as much as he felt obligated to stand by her side.

He wanted to kill the love inside. Drown her in the grey waters he'd learned to dwell in. It was a swamp of cynicism and apathy.

_no_ _more mind games,  
break,_

Angered by this thought she raised her hand in the air. Her beautiful skin was broken around her wrist. The street light reflected back from the metal of the tracking device. So wrong. So very wrong.

In herself Robin saw a future she hated. Would she become a slave to the hunters once again? Her heart refused this. So did the engineered blood. She didn't exactly know how to evade this fate, but she knew that if she willed to become the Eve, she couldn't submit to this. She couldn't submit to Amon.

She'd given him time, but her youth would soon wither away. The thought hurt, the decision was torture, but Amon would never give up, never change.

She wouldn't take the noose he was throwing her.

_no_ _more happy smiles._

_shatter._

This morning she'd woke up after another nightmare. Her wandering steps had taken her to his room. She'd stood by the wall her hands shielding her incase he'd wake up. The need to linger there by him had been stronger than before. He hadn't held her since that time by the lake.

The lake… Robin missed it. There'd been serenity in Amon back then. Now she wasn't sure if such even existed. The grudge was too great, but neither she nor he knew where all that coldness originated from.

She sat down on a bench nearby fisting her hands like that forced action could remove the pain. Somewhere a dog howling, ugly birds gloating, car engines running - all very restless in their wait for dawn. She too wanted this suffocating moment to end.

_alone. always alone._

So she was the descendant of Saturn, who could return the former glory of witches back to them? She didn't know where to go or where start. She was sixteen and locked away from everything including the ones she was meant to save.

Doubt lived in her growling a word of mistrust at every attempt of hers to claim control of her own actions. Stuck in habits and tradition she let Amon make her choices for her and ignored it all taking the easy way out.

**Coward,** said the mocking voice inside.

Why couldn't she just tell him? She questioned, but was soon reminded.

Because Amon didn't love her back.

Because he didn't feel like dying when he saw her anguished eyes glare into nothingness like she was giving up this life.

Because he only saw what he wanted to see.

_broken._

Robin could feel the fire climb her veins, but she refused to let it out. She knew she could've made the asphalt under her feet crack and break and still she refused that power. She could've set the whole world on fire and watch it burn to ashes. The thought tempted her, but she knew it was just trying to delude her into madness.

**Go crazy**, the voice whispered.

**Destroy the vain palaces of men. **

**Claim back the glory.**

But she needed to be strong for all of them. She couldn't let Amon or anyone break her. Couldn't listen to the voice or acknowledge her tiredness. Because the moment she would be diminished like that there'd be no tomorrow. He'd hunt her and put an end to her. Forget she'd ever been there.

Suddenly a smell in the air raised her awareness. Something was happening now and she rose to welcome this change ignoring its purpose. If she was to cease, she'd fight it.

Slowly the raindrops began to illuminate the scenery. Shadows became light and the strange sadness vanished along with her tiredness.

She glanced at her wrist feeling how her veins throbbed. Too little needle marks – The Craft was pushing through her medication.

She was surprised with the lack of worry. No, she wasn't like Amon. The revelations didn't frighten her anymore. That feeling her Craft gave her was intoxicating. Denying this gift was falsity.

She felt it stronger now as the veil on her eyes fell and the poison they gave her rushed in her veins burning as it tried to resist the ancient power she was tapping into. A sweet taste rushed into her mouth reviving her body and when the veil was down and the lie gone again she could see how everything around her quivered in the anticipation of something new.

Another witch, she realized and a spark fired in her eyes. She held onto her offensive Craft sensing that the other one was approaching. The other one: the original.

Then everything became chaos.

She sensed the heat on her face only moments before her hands rose to protect her face and pulled the curtains of fire to her protection as well. Fire as fierce as hers hammered her defenses while Robin looked through the fighting elements and saw a glow so alike to hers.

Who was this witch?

She pulled the fire apart with her hands killing both flames. Her Craft-filled eyes scanned the area seeing everything, but focusing only on the disturbance she'd felt for some time now. Robin looked at her own hand comparing it to the figure that lurked further away. They were alike, but different in a way.

Now the figure too noticed that he or she had been spotted and without hesitation the stranger dashed towards Robin running with wings. A woman, Robin saw now when she pulled the veil partly back on and sent a towering torrent of fire towards her attacker.

The woman dodged and to Robin's great surprise the flames died in her hands with a giggle from the attacker. She saw blue jeans slashed open from the knees before she threw herself down to escape the attack.

The woman went right past her with inhuman speed and it was only later that Robin could see the thing blade the obscure woman had been holding in her hands. Apparently she'd counted on speed in getting to her. Robin pulled herself up ignoring the fact that her clothes were wet and the rain had turned more aggressive as well.

She stared at the woman, who'd stopped, and looked at her short grey hair that seemed strange to Robin. As the mystery woman turned towards her Robin recognized the glow of lost innocence and the traces of the lost battle of sanity that all fallen witches had. Her eyes were almost black and like holes in the sky as they absorbed Robin.

"Faker!" The woman yelled sending another wave of rampaging flames at Robin. A shield blocked it just like the one before.

Now the woman's lips lost all color as she pressed her lips shut tightly. Those unusual eyes narrowed, but then something amusing apparently came to her and she let out a giggle lifting her hand to her mouth.

Robin re-evaluated her opponent who was clad in worn denim clothes. The woman lifted both of her eyebrows and soon enough Robin was surrounded in flames that were eating her shields hungrily. She pushed her flames at Robin fuelling her Craft with her apparent anger.

**Will never fail… **

Acting upon instinct Robin let go of the view of the world and dove into the painting that existed beneath. Now she could see the puppet master's strings and clipping them was easy. While the ring of fire raged around her she began moving her hands, dancing even as she gathered the strength within and began eliminating the invisible lines of the drawing ending her enemy's attacks.

She too could return the smile when she stepped free from the circle. A brow rose and then her attacker urged her to go for the glory by throwing her head back in an inviting way. Robin's eyes were suddenly seeing hundreds and hundreds of lines forming in front of her, but these were not the kind their fire Craft left behind!

Robin looked around her seeing how everything shook inside the truth. Could it be that the stranger also saw the world as it was? An invisible blow against Robin's chest proved her right. The shock was enough to paralyze her.

"Faker!" The woman repeated her accusation and her Craft assaulted Robin again like a powerful whip. A long bloody wound appeared on her back. Robin breathed in pain, but refused to give up and instead she quickly made the true world quake as she cut the lines with blind eyes causing collapses all around.

The other one felt the ground shake under her feet as well. What her black eyes saw was frightening, but nowhere enough to scare her away. She watched the child gather her spirit and attack again. Around them everything was protesting with unheard screams.

Could they not see they were entangling the life and death around them in this showdown?

The winds climbed her thighs. Nothing could be heard under the thundering. Rocks and soil escaped the ground they stood upon. She cut the lines the other one drew or bent just like that. No thought to what might happen. It wasn't water raining from the sky anymore.

_Faker…_

What was that about? Robin thought as she blinked her eyes for the sight of the painting was becoming brighter and brighter every minute. And suddenly it was like gravity was lost. Robin realized that the lines underneath were cut, but she was too late. She fell and began to weave new lines quickly before she could be finished.

The hand was upon her before she could react: A white hand reaching for the lines in her - To break them, to break her.

She fell and the hand lurked above her wanting to enter her chest and pull out the lines, distort them. Those were hands that had crippled and killed and stolen. They were scarily alike to Robin's hands – Hands of terror.

The Craft was between them, obeyed them both, but cried when they abused it. Those black eyes were holes in this painting. Robin yelled and her nails cut lines as she fell. The hand was almost at her chest, close enough to graze her.

Then Robin's hand jerked cutting a random line. All went berserk. The light hurt them both and the scream was higher than anything she'd ever heard before. Robin heard the other one moan in pain before her sight was stolen from her and the grey lie surrounded her.

Her body hit the ground and she began rolling down a hill uncontrollably. The hard sand scratched her face and then she stopped at the bottom. Water engulfed her. She tried to look up.

Only grey saluted her. That ominous taste on her lips: Blood. Was she bleeding?

Cough. Wheeze. Whimper.

The other one? Was she here?

No… gone.

Too many questions. Why was there another one? Was she… an original?

The rain was soothing now. That terrible feeling of something being wrong was gone. But amid this silence was also anxiety leaned above her like a rescuing shadow that took his shape.

"Amon…?" she begged. Wouldn't he hold her again like that time at the lake? That special time? Why not?

Above her loomed a black sky, around her a ravaged world, inside of her an exhausted chaos. This was her Paradise. Was he the Snake?

* * *

_Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the Coven sank in the dark_

_our_ _crumbling world is so beautiful_

_the_ _leaking sky  
and crashing trees _

_all_ _is broken  
all is forgotten._

'**Le Ciel Noir'**

* * *

**  
A/N: **Poem is Kitty's "Empty Hands" 


	4. Le Ciel Noir

A devil may cry: '_Le Ciel Noir'_

Beautiful.

Their Paradise.

They stood together watching as the blaze ate concrete and brick. Her little figure was protected by his arms as he pulled her closer, safe from the raging flames. She didn't hear the screams anymore and for that she was glad. Silencing the tormented sound had drained her Craft, but it'd been the only humane thing to do and she was humane, wasn't she?

Neither of them shunned the burning skeleton of the Factory, but instead they both accepted the abyss and looked into it. No friends, no foes looked back. It seemed empty and safe for once.

Robin lifted her head enough to look into his eyes that had always radiated a kind of cold at her. She wondered if his prideful look had melted while she turned her head. Relief washed through her, when she saw peace on Amon's beautiful features. No more resentment or despise could be found.

Finally they both could look away from the minute ahead of them. Maybe a future stood before them after all.

"Amon?" she asked softly and made him look at her.

"Thank you."

Amon looked at her for a moment the emotion of surprise visible on his handsome features. Robin knew she could've explained her words further but chose not to. At the moment he didn't need to know about the burning in her chest when he held her near. If he knew about the feelings she'd harbored for some time now, there was no telling what he'd do.

Now, more than ever, Robin wanted him to stay by her side.

His hand moved before she could push her head down. The gloved fingers wrapped around her wrist. "We must go now," he told her locking her hand in a firm grip.

Then he moved and his hold on her invited her to join him as he entered the woods again and begun orienting towards a destination she wasn't aware of.

"It is not safe for you in Japan anymore," Amon explained while they walked. His tone of voice was so worrying, so caring. It almost frightened her, but at the same time it stirred the affection she had for him.

"Solomon will seek you out and destroy if they are not able to capture you." She knew he would die before letting anything happen to her. The tension that had taken over was raw, but it fed on feelings. He truly wanted to protect her.

Robin clenched her teeth together. She could sense the two sides in him: The one with a hand that held her tightly and tenderly, and then the one that had eyes with burning determination. Only one could dominate him.

Suddenly they came to a halt and he released her hand signaling her to remain still. It was an old road they had stopped at. There was a high pile of pine twigs that stood partly of the road. _Clever_, she thought as she watched Amon clear the twigs off vehicle's roof.

Once done with his job he approached her again, stopping in front of her with pleading eyes. High in the horizon the sky was red. He wanted her to make the decision for him.

"It is your life on the line so it is only proper that you decide your own way, Robin." He held onto her hand and the leathered glove felt good against her skin. Robin returned his sad-eyed look.

She gave herself a moment to rethink this. She'd been alone all her life. In the monastery they had told her to find solace in God. He'd told the unknown listener all about her life and the loneliness she felt, but there'd never been an answer.

She'd been told that her place in this world was to kill others like her. The only problem with that thought was that she was one of a kind – a thing created in a lab: Artificial. She was a faker among her kind. Insecurity clutched her chest.

"Where else would I go?" Robin asked. What was she but a weak child? Barely old enough to take care of herself…

He seemed to sense her doubt and anger. Those hands took hers again warming her cold fingers. "I cannot guarantee this is the right way."

Was he looking for an absolution in advance?

"I'd rather go with you than be alone."

_Because you don't see me as a witch, Amon._ _Because you're the first person I've loved. _

* * *

That moment was so far away from his reach now. The promises they'd both made back then had slowly crumbled. Her wishes had become her tears and he'd only seen the narrow path ahead becoming narrower. When she'd asked him to stop he hadn't listened. 

And after the events that had taken place in Italy she'd stopped talking to him like she'd used to. Weakness had spread across her body. That cursed Craft had wearied her in time. Had his precautions been a step in the wrong direction?

Amon no longer knew. He couldn't remember another time when he had questioned his decisions like this. Before Robin, it'd never happened.

He was tired of walking these streets with a stoic mask on his face. Death bloomed here and with all of his unanswered questions he was ready to admit failure.

It'd begun shortly after she'd run away from him. The quakes had been stronger than usually and they'd shook foundations that had been thought to be more than withstanding. The burning winds had caused more damage however.

The wailing of victims, the sounds of a dozen sirens and dead silence ahead were things Amon hadn't run to before. He'd only the cut version of damages done by witches. He'd only met moderately weak witches. So naturally seeing what a true witch was capable of should have been a shock.

Worry, however, overcame everything else in his mind. Robin had run here, he could feel it inside him. He knew she'd been in the heart of the destruction ahead. She could be injured or dead and these thoughts made him numb. What was his life about, if she was dead?

Still, being forced amid this terror and fear, he could see the beauty in this scenery. He knew this was her handprint. Her delicate fingers had crushed the layers of reality inside her fist like a river of strings. That is how she saw everything – Even him.

_our_ _crumbling world is so beautiful,  
the leaking sky,  
and crashing trees. _

Amon rushed forward, knowing that he could not stop something that'd already happened. If Robin had finally abandoned reason, he knew he was the only one, who still stood any kind of chance of stopping her. She'd listen to him and die because of his treacherous words, because she loved him.

_  
all is broken.  
all is forgotten. _

He'd wanted to block the information from his mind for so long. He hadn't known for sure until that day at the lake. Her eyes had been his on that day and through her eyes, he'd looked inside her and seen the overflowing love.

How could he respond to that? It was such a strong feeling, dwelling endlessly within her. She knew there was no hope. She'd known it since he'd taken Kane's life before her eyes.

But if he didn't love her, why did he cling onto her with almost jealous passion? Kane had lost his life, trying to separate them.

Amon looked into the horizon of dark clouds. He'd find her and he'd take care of her. It was his duty. He'd never forgive the person, who'd take it away from him.

_  
no one can save our souls.  
we're done for. _

People around him were nothing but rows of bustling black insects, concentrating on their own misery. He was relieved when their rows ended and he reached the heart of the disaster.

Amon stopped to stand by the roadblocks that were guarded by the police. He no longer had his STN-J ID-card that gave him access to every crime scene, but he didn't need it. He knew that woman would be here and she'd let him in from the first sighting.

Glaring at the almost clean park that only had a few fallen monuments as its casualties he suddenly realized that every shred of evidence spoke of a duel.

There'd been two witches - Not one.

Relief didn't get to wash over him though. Who would've attacked Robin? No one knew where she was. Even STN had only a dozen people who were aware that she was staying in Japan. Was there a leak of information? Why would anyone harm her? A witch of all! She'd been made to be their savior.

None of it made sense to him and he could feel how his veins begun bumping blood with heated tempo around his temples. Around him the noise of the police and everything else was becoming quieter. And then he noticed her standing there.

She'd noticed Amon as well and with her hands tucked in her pockets, she made a stiff head move to signal the police next to Amon to let him pass. He began walking towards her, looking into the strange green eyes that hid a thousand things behind them.

The lines on her face were all tensed as well as her whole posture. A black ski cap had been pulled over her head and it hid every last trace of her hair, lining that ghostly pale face efficiently. Her clothing was alike to Amon's: A dark overcoat and underneath a pair of dark trousers and a shirt.

There was no snappy comment about him failing to perform his duty unlike he'd expected. She simply observed him coldly and then turned her gaze to the crater in the middle of park, making Amon take notice of it as well. Burn marks all over the park proved that there'd been another witch, for they seemed to have been fired from opposite sides of the battlefield.

Above them, the sky thundered. "Where is she?" Amon asked. The distress inside wasn't visible, but she could sense his unusual mood.

"She's not here." The apparent accent in her speech gave away her foreign status. Amon realized he didn't remember the _HQ vixen_'s real name and spent a few seconds pondering it, but like with all bad dreams one sought out to forget, the name simply slipped past him.

"This is more serious than you've begun to realize." She stated again, lowering her voice to a whisper. Her usual temper hadn't flared at the sight of him, which was a good sign though it did make Amon a little suspicious. Still he allowed her beautiful voice that was always melodious and relaxing to entangle him.

"We have an escapee on our hands," She confessed and rolled her shoulder a bit to remove tension, "a dangerous one, who apparently has not taken a liking to your protégée."

Was there any bitterness in her voice, he did not detect it at this time. Somehow he recognized a whole other motive behind the change in her behavior - regret.

Her jaw shivered gently while she broke the illusion of her tranquil mood and allowed fear to show. "She will not be safe on her own."

Amon was about to say something when another person invaded their conversation and walked next to her. "Mio, we found something-" the young man began speaking but stopped after noticing Amon.

Mio? That name didn't sound like her at all. Besides why would a foreigner have a Japanese name?

The woman gave the young man a silencing glare, but seeing as he apparently waited for an introduction, she simply sighed and took her hand out of her pocket, pointing her pale hand at Amon.

"This is Amon. He is Robin Sena's guardian." This time her voice was not clear or melodious, but tainted somehow.

Amon noticed how she said her names in the wrong order, another proof that she wasn't a native here. The young man nodded stiffly; noticing how she didn't make a move to introduce him to her guest or even reveal Amon's last name to him, but ignored it eventually and excused himself by saying he had something to tell her at a later time.

After the young man had vanished to a safe distance, she began talking again and her voice gained its usual lightness back. "She's bloodthirsty and _very dangerous_. Robin is lucky that the vaccinations didn't hold her Craft back."

Then she frowned and pressed her head down. "The tracer on her wrist was found at the bottom of the crater." Chills made her shiver unwittingly. "She must've clawed it out of her wrist herself."

Hope was very little now. Up until now, Amon had secretly trusted on the device STN had planted her wrist to find her for he'd known that she couldn't possibly remove it while her powers were bound by the chemicals she'd been injected with. He would have to trace her the old fashion way now.

She chuckled suddenly, a faint smile decorating her face. "You look at me as if you forgot my name again."

HQ vixen, foreign hag and the name he always forgot. No, he might've forgotten what others called her, but she was impossible to forget, being such an unlikely ally in this crazy charade.

"Just remember." She was turning around, leaving him for now, though there must've been more to tell. "I am not the enemy. You and I, _and her_, are all on the same side."

He looked at her fleeting back as she made her way towards the rest of the STN agents that were there investigation the cause of this unnatural disaster. Amon cleared his throat. He might've not appreciated the HQ's idea of putting her in charge of "the Toudou affair", as STN called Robin's case, but she had been of help and would probably continue being just that. Besides she was one of the few hunters around, who had enough power to hunt the more dangerous witches of the S-class and still remain sane.

He looked around him once more, gathering the information he'd acquired in one place. There was a female witch hunting for Robin with power so mighty that Robin had needed to Ultimate Craft to keep her at bay. Suddenly something in Amon's mind connected.

How had they known it'd been Robin? The tracer didn't go off until Robin left their living perimeter. That would have to mean that they were originally tracking the other witch.

He glanced towards her again, witnessing how she gave discreet commands to all her subordinates. She'd given him a clue. The STN agents investigating the Toudou affair were also investigating the escapee, which meant that she had to have a connection to Robin.

Amon looked around him. Was there another witch wielding the Ultimate Craft? The mere thought terrified him.

_  
look to your hands for salvation,  
and look to you tears  
for pity. _

She out there somewhere, chased by unfamiliar foe: A formidable one. Amon didn't possess the strength to protect her, she was the only one to do that, but he knew he was the thread of her humanity.

Turning on his heels he strode towards her again and stopped when he reached her. She seemed assured and with a simple head move she signaled the man beside her to give Amon something: A gun case and bullets. He took the gifts in his hand and looked at the golden surface of the bullets that were covered in runes through the transparent part of the case.

Witch hunting bullets.

* * *

_  
but our world is gone  
and our hands,  
empty._

Robin fumbled forward the street, leaning against the wall with her shoulder. A bloody stain was left behind and when she stopped for a short breather, she noticed her wrist was still bleeding.

There was blood and dead tissue underneath her fingernails. Her clothes were torn and her hair messy. The battle had been fierce, leaving her scarred and wounded. She could've stayed there and waited for Amon to come; STN to fix things up and stick another needle through her skin, but something in her resisted such thoughts.

Enough was enough. No one else stood a chance against the grey-haired woman, who shared both her Craft. Even if she'd wanted to depend on Amon and trust him, she'd simply put him in grater danger by staying with him. If she was to die, she'd rather lure the enemy away from the things that meant a great deal to her.

She made a face of face and took her bleeding wrist inside her fist, lifting both hands against her chest. She knew she could've fixed her hand with her Craft but she was too weary to use it. Things might go terribly wrong if she meddled with the wrong lines, so she simply withstood the pain.

Laying her head back she looked at the dark sky above her.

_Amon._

_I'm sorry. _

She'd made it so far by ignoring her wounds, away from the unconscious foe resting beside her. It'd rained when she'd woken up. Sirens had approached and a blissful face had been there beside her. Grey hair glued against her face, nostrils quivering because of the cold that'd snuck on them.

Her magical eyes had seen the alikeness between herself and her enemy.

She knew she could've beaten her then and ended all this, but seeing her so vulnerable and weak had kept her hand from delivering the deathblow.

Foolish perhaps, but she was no killer. It might be a mistake she'd pay with her life.

"Sena Robin?" An unfamiliar voice startled her awake from her thoughts.

It wasn't until now that she noticed the man that had appeared on her right: A blonde man, clearly a foreigner. Her Craft unveiled her eyes for a moment and she saw his colors in their fullest. Amid the different lines and colors she also saw the one thing she'd unconsciously waited to find: a gentle shade of metallic red.

He was a witch.

Robin nodded to his question.

"Will you come with me? It's not safe for you here." His voice was saturated with deep concern that made her a bit moony.

"Not until you give me her name." She said, half sighing, half whispering.

He moved closer to her and took her weight on himself by wrapping his arm around her waist. She leaned against him, exhausted and trusting.

"Her name is Mayu."

* * *

_Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the Coven sank in the dark_

_your_ _beautiful tears_

_make_ _my heart bleed,_

_but_ _no matter what,_

_i_ _cannot stop looking,_

_cannot_ _stop hurting._

'**Goddess Unveiled'**

* * *

**  
A/N: **Poems are Kitty's "Empty Hands" and in the prologue "Beautiful Tears". 


	5. Goddess Unveiled

A devil may cry: '_Goddess Unveiled'_

She had a dream that thick darkness surrounded her and sharp red lights swirled around her, breathing all sorts of emotions down her neck. In reality she knew they were witches, in which all lurked the possibility of the maddening abyss once opening and swallowing them as whole. In a dream though, she didn't have to think of such omens. She could just float and mend together with these people and Marcus.

_Yes, his name was Marcus…_

She'd already become accustomed to his shine and scent during these short hours and could no longer erase them from her memory. It was like completing a puzzle and still seeing the picture although the pieces were no longer together.

The witches accepted her unlike Amon, who'd always shun that part of her. She'd never had a chance of using her Craft to feel him this way and now she'd probably never have that chance either, considering the way things were.

"Robin-san?" She heard his voice call her back from behind the curtain. No more rabbit-holes to hide in.

"Please," she breathed, "call me Robin."

She could hear him exhale his relief. "I guess the suffixes don't fit in a foreigner's mouth?"

Robin opened her eyes finally, knowing the others had left her alone with him. Her eyes proved her right after the faint colors around sharpened into shapes and finally into a picture. Marcus' worried face was soon above her and his anxiousness dissolved away with the sight of her green eyes opening.

"No," she replied and let a kind smile wash over her. "I just prefer people calling me by my name. It makes me feel… comforted."

He nodded at her words and stood up next, offering her his hand. "We weren't introduced yet but I suppose you know my name?" Doubt lingered on his kind face for awhile even after she took his hand and shook it. She could tell he found her familiar, knew what to anticipate from her powers. How curious.

"Marcus," she answered softly. There was very little that she couldn't read from a person when the veil was lifted. Gladly she'd been able to veil her eyes for now. Using the special Craft wearied her physically and it wouldn't have helped with her healing. Yet Robin came to realize something as soon as that thought occurred to her: Where were her wounds?

She raised her wrist that barely bore a thin scar now to see whether all that blood was still there. Upon realizing her amazing recovery she raised her brow at Marcus.

"Kyrie healed you with my energy so you needn't use the Craft for it," Marcus explained calmly and sat further away from her to be able to relax. Her eyes became aware of his pale complexion immediately as well as the shadows underneath his eyes. She'd been healed with his life-force. Why?

Why had he been able to find her on that alley? Why did he know more about her enemy than she did? And why could she read tragedy from him, in that quiet glow in him and his wearied look?

The room was lit by candles and now their flames seemed to become animate and throw shadows on the walls with a faster beat. He blinked the white streaks of hair from his eyes. Those were dark eyes that seemed aware of the existence of many mysteries. Their tainted gold made him look older than he was. Her new ally seemed quite enigmatic indeed.

Marcus had been looking at the candles for awhile now, almost as if he'd wanted to relax himself before engaging himself in a far more serious conversation with her. Perhaps the healing had wearied him more than he'd expected and he needed a moment. It was alright, Robin thought as she finally sat up to look at herself. It was only natural that all this destruction and mayhem drained even the most trained eyes.

Robin looked at her hands, the fixed skin of her wrist and the bruises that had seemed to have vanished for good. Her back no longer hurt so it was only reasonable to assume that the damage there was also better now. Yet the deepest pain hadn't come from any external or internal wound in her body. The other one, Mayu as Marcus had named her foe, had attempted to reach for the one line within her that would've destroyed her for good. She'd attempted to cripple her and then finish her. It wasn't a pleasant thought to finally find someone, who shares the same abilities and disabilities as you, and find out that they only wish to end your life.

Yet questions remained. Where had this foe appeared all of the sudden? Why did she want Robin dead and how was it possible that there was another witch with the power of the Ultimate Craft? Didn't anyone know? Robin had thought STN would know better. She'd thought Amon would know better but all that lay ahead was confusion.

"I must apologize," Marcus spoke and rose from his chair. He was tall and pale. Yet there was something familiar in him that Robin only sensed now. Still she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was that was so familiar in him. Maybe it was just the gentle shadow of a protector. Perhaps he unconsciously reminded her of Amon.

"I wasn't strong enough or fast enough to reach you before Mayu did." There was something heavy in Marcus' throat. He was very blue but not because of Robin or his failure. It was something else.

"Honestly speaking, I don't where to start." He shot her with an awkward smile. "There are so many things that have affected one another and developed into the situation today-" His voice ended halfway his speech and he stopped to take a breath. Obviously the matter was closer to his heart than she'd expected it to be.

"Tell me about you," Robin helped. She placed her hands on her lap and cast her calm eyes on him, noticing how he tried his best to keep himself from trembling.

"Alright," Marcus whispered and walked up to her, sitting next to her on the bed. Then he pressed his head down.

"We've met before, only you don't remember it," he began. She knew her heart wasn't pumping blood anymore but something that hurt as it entered and exited that muscle. "The Factory," she realized and recognized his reaction to the name and place. When the Factory had collapsed Robin had escaped with Amon and burned the witches that were trapped inside, giving them a merciful death.

Something weighted Marcus' shoulders and Robin felt it too; the heaviness of the air almost as if it'd drained their ill memories inside and carried them into the flames. "Most of the time STN kills witches they encounter," Marcus explained.

"But those are the weak, fallen ones… witches, who have very little strength in the end. You and I know about the powerful ones because… we are both beyond anything that the normal seeds can develop into."

Indeed, Robin thought and looked at him secretly. The line in him was pure and strong and closer to her color than it was to color of the other witches that Marcus traveled with - Metallic red, fierce and passionate.

"Even though fear for our kind exists in their hearts, they fear that exterminating us for good might be worse. Some of us contain power that could be… used for much good. So really, what they need is to be able to research us and perhaps find an alternative to allowing all that power to be left unused."

He glanced at her to make sure she understood what he meant. The powerful ones weren't killed. They were captured and studied. STN had done it long before Zaizen had developed Orbo. Research is exactly what Toudou had been doing when he'd created her.

Robin nodded to signal him to continue.

"I trust you know Zaizen, the man behind the Factory's front?" he asked, gaining another nod. How could Robin forget? She'd killed Zaizen herself, almost disappearing into the power that time.

"He developed a substance called Orbo. It could nullify a witch's powers. But he made it from witches and needed more and more raw material so he had his STN branch capture witches of this region and give them over to the Factory."

"Yes, Marcus," Robin interrupted, slightly impatient. "I know all this."

"Yet he needed to be able to create a stronger version of Orbo for the stronger witches could resist its power. That is why he had some of the witches Headquarters had studied sent to him. More powerful witches that he wanted to test Orbo's efficiency with. I…" He seemed to lose his voice in the middle of his confession again. A tear glimmered in his eye. She could only imagine the horror he must've gone through at that time.

"…I was one of them. And I only began living the night we met."

The tanks - Robin had never been able to forget what she'd seen back then. Witches being exploited cruelly like puppets being sucked out of their life-force little by little. She'd been so angry at Zaizen and STN for allowing it.

"You brought upon many deaths that night, saving them from more pain." She shivered at his words but he lay his hand on her shoulder and made eye contact. "They couldn't have escaped. They hadn't been alive for some time anyway. They were merely forced to live on without the will to do so," he said, finally granting her forgiveness for that night.

_She'd never been able to forget their screams…_

"Yet there were some of us still strong enough to survive and you set us free. We escaped from the ruins, surviving only because of our powers. Many died along the way but the ones that survived were stronger now." He smiled at her, apparently attempting to calm himself and discard the horrors that'd happened at that time.

"She was there as well, wasn't she?" Robin asked, slowly beginning to understand where Marcus' story was headed. He nodded, taking his hand from her shoulder now. He retreated a bit back into his shell.

"Mayu was heavily sedated and kept under control with the help of many substances that were dangerous enough to cause serious damage to her brain. She isn't quite balanced even now. I suppose it's the long sleep, the confusion of her identity and the second sight she has that's made her the way she is. I can't say the poison they injected her with or the experiments they made could've made it any better either."

Yet it didn't answer all her questions, did it?

"There's more to tell," Robin stated.

But Marcus didn't speak. His silence was frightening her for it could only mean he knew the truth would cut deep and he didn't wish to harm her. Marcus raked his blonde hair, thinking this through. He wanted to do it right by her but the right words didn't come easy.

And she let go of him that moment. Somehow she knew that he couldn't protect her anymore than he already had and that after he'd have spoken there was very little chance they would meet again. In a way the short time with him had been mending to her. She was an orphan, rootless and without family. She'd hoped that maybe some day Amon would've wanted to become what she'd always needed but that had been foolish. Now, probably for the first time in a long time, she felt like she might have someone. Witches were her family, weren't they?

"I don't want to say this, Robin." He'd stood up and walked in circles around the room, clearly consumed by the responsibility he'd taken on his shoulders. "You feel it too, don't you? The way you belong with us; your people, don't you?"

"Yes." Her voice didn't shiver, it was pure and strong and decisive. "Someone once told me I should be among my people, but I couldn't realize why until now."

"Good," Marcus answered. "Promise me you'll try your best and… come back to us when it's done."

Amon's words echoed in her ears. How Kane had wanted to use her because of what she could do. How witches would drain her if they ever knew about what she was capable of doing. How she too would become tainted and evil and let go of everything she had for the power. But that wasn't right at all! She might've loved Amon so much that it hurt but she knew now he didn't feel like home. There was no passionate love between her and Marcus but strangely she felt like she needed to protect him and keep him safe; like they were siblings and always had been. It was a feeling she'd never known before.

"I will," Robin promised, standing up as well. She was comforted by his relief but the intuition in her tainted that feeling of happiness a bit. She would leave this room and leave him and everyone else here soon after he'd told her.

Her hand dried a tear that'd emerged in her eye corner. She needed to be strong - for him and the rest. So she decided to help him.

Robin walked to him, taking his hand and looking into his ember eyes that reflected her own image in them. Then she spoke, "When I fought Mayu I could see a part of the truth. I know that she is an Original, but I do not what it means. You must tell me, Marcus. You have to tell me, because all I know is that she's strong… and monstrous, and her compassion has been consumed by the Power. Please tell me."

He nodded stiffly, dropping his glare from her to break the contact. Then he gathered himself, smiling in that kind way of his that was almost able to assure her that nothing would ever be wrong again.

"Nature created Satyr and all the powerful witches of the past: The ones who wielded divine powers – Not man." He shook his head a bit.

"Even Toudou couldn't have done that out of thin air - Not from relics or any memory of the past. He found everything he needed to create you in witches of today. He found twins, sharing a Craft he'd never believed would've existed. What if this Craft was in the hands of a single person? Would it be stronger that way?"

But she already had the answer in her mind. _It could be stronger, more balanced perhaps, with Nature's mistakes corrected. It could be…_

"It was her." Robin pressed her head down. "She's in me and I'm in her. Our lines are so alike and so different."

"I'm sorry," Marcus offered her solace again and she took it, burying her face in his chest when the tears came.

She didn't quite know how to explain why she cried, why she was so touched by the news. Yet again she was made to ask who she was and where she came from. Only this time she knew why she'd been attacked with such strong hate. She knew why Mayu had called her a faker.

And even though she felt good being where she was, inside she wanted him to be Amon and she couldn't vanquish the longing she had for her protector. It wasn't the same and it was better to be where she was wanted but her heart could not be convinced.

Eventually she retreated. She felt so small in the middle of everything. Here were people who were willing to take care of her and be for her for once but she couldn't stay as long as Mayu was out there. Robin knew Mayu would come for her and leave nothing but ruins behind her. She'd kill every witch that followed Marcus today only because she could.

He recognized her decisiveness. "To us you'll be a champion, Robin," he said. "And we will welcome you back when you have nowhere else to go to."

Something he couldn't quite recognize passed her face. "Not just because I couldn't go anywhere else, Marcus," she explained, holding onto his hand. "But because I want to return."

And she turned to the door unsure of what waited on its other side.

* * *

_Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the Coven sank in the dark_

_freedom..._

_...such an empty word since  
__you bound my hands_ _together,_

_and_ _clamped my mouth shut. _

_  
even my tears have no place on my  
cheeks __without your approval_

'**Definition of Evil'**

* * *

**  
A/N: **Poem is Kitty's "Freedom" in the premonition. 


	6. Definition of Evil

A devil may cry: '_Definition of Evil'_

She could sense it. Mayu was coming.

Her world was quickly transformed into fireworks before her eyes. Her veins pumped stronger fluids than blood once again and her hands were no longer simply the means of fighting but tools of more utter destruction or salvation. Of course the slumbering beast could find her easily for there weren't too many people who looked the same through the eyes of the Ultimate Craft. She and Mayu were special that way, weren't they?

Robin needed to think and find somewhere to lure her to. If she didn't act quickly, Mayu would demolish her current whereabouts and kill many in the process. Robin reached out with her hand already within the painting. She wasn't quite sure what she was doing but her senses were eager to guide her.

She traveled from one place to the other and saw those familiar lights again. Metallic red that devoured all other colors in her: Mayu. What could her nemesis want in the end?

Then the figure, formed from bundles of lines and layers beyond them, turned and saw her. Pain struck her down before Robin could act and the veil fell over her eyes again. Her knees became numb and she crashed on the floor soon after realizing it. The physical pain wasn't intense like it'd been before but more like a warning.

Robin forced herself back up and looked at her surroundings again. She didn't quite know where she was, but the walls were solid rock and there were no lamps or lighting textures in the roof. Maybe some deserted location near where she and Amon had lived? Some sort of monastery maybe?

Something quaked within her, making her realize time and place again. She needed to leave now.

Both ends of the corridor looked alike so she reached for the Craft when she began walking. It led her down the corridor that went northward and seemed to continue forever. Her fears had plenty of time to whisper terrible truths in her ear while she walked. She wasn't particularly keen on fighting Mayu again and she wasn't even sure if she could win in such a fight. Also it hadn't been that long ago since she'd still suffered from her seizures. How could she know they weren't over yet or that her body wouldn't fail her at the wrong time?

'_Since when had it not been dangerous?__'_ A voice inside her asked.

It'd always been dangerous but Amon had shielded her and taken care of fighting. His resolve in protecting her from the use of her powers had been almost possessive. It hadn't frightened then though.

She stopped to catch her breath when a dull pain bothered her lungs. After making sure it passed for the time being she continued but quickened her paste. Maybe if she found a distant location for facing Mayu? Perhaps then she could fight with her mind at ease.

But it wasn't quite that either, was it? They shared something. Mayu was her origin, the Original witch with the Ultimate Craft. How could Robin claim she was on the right tracks and Mayu wasn't? Maybe she wasn't meant to kill Mayu but save her as well? Fix her like she had fixed Kane.

Sadness emerged. There'd been no need to kill Kane so why had Amon? Because Kane had spoken something that'd feared him: Because he'd tried to protect Robin? There was no time to reflect on that now. No time.

Robin looked at the long corridor behind her. Maybe she should've run by now, alarmed because of the approaching darkness? Somehow she knew she was meant to run. The forces she commenced also gave her intuition that she'd learned to trust and this intuition kept on telling her how important it was that she didn't rush.

Then the door was there. She stopped and felt very strange all of the sudden. Her hand was anxious to open the door to freedom and taste all its flavors now. She'd take Mayu away from everyone here.

But after the dark outside had opened before her she knew she wasn't as alone she'd hoped and she finally recognized the reason why she'd stalled unconsciously.

"Amon," she said as she embraced the darkness and watched his tall figure emerge from the many shadows in the small courtyard. There was a steel gate near them and it was open. Her eyes focused on Amon again. He looked bizarre to her eyes.

Amon had known she'd come out sooner or later. His most bizarre ally had been right when saying he'd find her here. He didn't need the tracker like any other STN agent would've. As he'd become to realize during his stay with her, his eyes were sensitive to her now and he could catch the radiance she spread from anywhere.

Amid his pride there was joy and relief as well. He'd followed a long road with signs of her injury. Blood and tears mixed with her labored walking had kept him going all night. Now she looked rejuvenated and there wasn't a single trace of injury on her. The Craft really had to be strong…

His calculating eyes spotted something in her though. She was different in a way. More mature perhaps but definitely more decisive. Even in her dirty and torn clothing she seemed somewhat dignified and radiant - A harsh diamond.

"We're leaving," Amon said walking up to her and taking her elbow in his hand. He didn't look different at all. Worry hadn't drained the life from his face nor had anger made him reckless in his search. He seemed a collected as ever.

"Let go." She yanked her arm back, stepping down the stairs and right past him. "I can't leave yet," she informed him, not specifying any of her words.

He watched her go, feeling a new kind worry emerge. Had she gone beyond the reach of his words? "You're not safe." Amon shook his head, stealing her arm inside his grip again to make her stop her walk.

"No, Amon." Her face was pale and her eyes showed him she'd cried. What'd happened? Amon's grip grew tighter.

"It's you who's not safe!" Her face twisted with worry and she looked around, shooting their perimeters with a scanning glance. Apparently she also knew the other fugitive was coming here.

Then their eyes clashed and everything froze. No more struggle, no more words. She felt as overwhelmed by him as always and this time she knew she couldn't fall for that again. The bond had to be cut – for good.

"I must release you from your duty. You can't protect me anymore." She tore her arm away from him, swallowing the impurity in her voice. He knew now what'd happened and it didn't make him happy.

"They will only use you." His voice grew demanding and his shadow taller. Authority had entered their play. Violence would soon ensue as well.

"Like Kane?!" She snapped, letting out the frustration and anger she'd never told to him about before. Her voice became steel and weakness vanished from her as if it'd completely dissolved away.

"Amon, there's no more purpose in our common life."

Of course, he thought bitterly. She wanted to leave him now that there were witches to save and fix. She wanted to be with her own kind - those worthless killers, who'd all, one by one, lose their minds! This abandoning was reckless and it hurt more than he could realize.

"STN won't let you escape." His strict voice didn't seem moved by her words. _So it really didn't matter to him?_

"No. They will no longer settle for watching either!" She shot back, taking a few steps towards the gate. He approached her equally, beginning their circling. A small smile decorated the corner of his mouth. She'd grown claws and used them quite eagerly it seemed.

"It's you who stands in my way." God it hurt to say that truth, she thought and witnessed the same hurt in him. Robin knew she could've used the Craft, done anything to put him gently asleep but it would've been only temporal. Amon would continue following her and then hunt her if she didn't cut the anchor loose.

"You need your shots," Amon said out of the blue as if she'd never denied him his right to look after her. He approached and she backed up, making him stop. Of course he'd always had patience so stopping was just a set back to him, she though bitterly.

He gave out his hand, his expression encouraging her to take it. "We'll flee the country." There gentleness in his voice pained her. The sweet lie he sold to her, wanting to delude her, was truly beautiful.

"I have contacts in Northern Europe," Amon continued but couldn't continue further when she raised her hand for a rejecting gesture. Her eyes had flared and their conviction was stronger than ever before. "You can't force me Amon. And I will not run and hide."

This is when he opened his jacket revealing an article she'd never thought she'd see again: An Orbo pendant.

He'd planned to take her by force if necessary all along.

"You have no choice. The witch you encountered will chase you down and destroy you." He spoke to her calmly, bewaring any words that might be too agitating.

Disbelief was all over her face as she looked at the pendant around his neck. Then the emotion shifted and she turned to stone. Reasoning with him would be futile but she didn't want to give in to the more destructive powers in her care.

"And I'm the only thing that stands between her and everything else – everyone else," she announced with a shivering voice, her eyes shifting from the pendant to Amon. He'd had time to tidy his hair into a neat ponytail. His clothes were clean and- Robin inhaled, trying to keep her anger from emerging.

"This is not the time to play a martyr," Amon announced with an equally steady voice and conviction. She wasn't meant to be sacrificed in some battle between witches and STN. Everyone just used her, ignoring what she should've had and could still have – a normal life and happiness.

He wouldn't yield in this battle, she realized.

"This is precisely the time." Robin's green eyes animated and all fear vanished. "You've chained me long enough!"

She dashed at him, throwing the little bodyweight she had against his chest. Her hands found pendant quickly and grabbed it, to tear it from his neck. He was quicker though and when she didn't notice, he tripped her with his leg, getting her off-balance .His strong hand locked her still against his chest.

"I will hurt you if it's necessary," Amon breathed against her ear, tickling her with his warm breath.

"Is this your devotion!?" She asked him, breaking free with a little help from a concentrated flare against the pendant. His grip loosened only a little, but enough for her to duck and slip through his hands.

She didn't get to running though when his hand took her braid, engulfing her in pain as he forced her still. Then he tried to contain her again. She kicked him; he blocked it and lost his hold on her braid.

They were once again face to face and ready to fight. "This is no common witch, Robin!" Amon warned her, only making the small girl raise her fists. She knew she couldn't beat him in a physical fight and if she tried to break the pendant with her Craft, she might hurt him more than she would've liked, so there really was nothing to do but stall until she thought of something else.

"And what am I?!" She yelled at him, her beautiful face distorted by anger he couldn't conceive. He knew she loved him, he'd known it for a long time. Why was she attacking him now? What had changed!?

"You're the person I swore to protect. You're the one, who promised to trust my judgment," he countered her, unwilling to attack her now. He'd already made her shed tears of pain.

"A person is without a name or a face! If that is all I am to you then I don't need your protection!"

Her answer struck a blade in him. His indifference towards her had been a way of making sure she could never start feeling for him, so why? Why had she fallen for him?

"You're a witch. A powerful and dangerous fugitive, whose powers must be kept at bay," he tried to explain, to make his duty as her protector take the blame for his means in taming her this time.

She swung her fist at him, making him dodge every sloppy punch. "I'm the Eve of witches!" Robin said and hit the pendant, getting him to grip her hand and restrain it. He forced her eyes on him and they glared at each other. The only thing that was missing from her eyes was love.

His hand grabbed her neck, pulling her face closer and then he kissed her. She froze completely, lost in the confusion of his kiss, the fever in it and eventually its pain, as his free hand punctured her skin with something sharp. Her body convulsed in her arms and she grimaced against his lips as the needle injected her with whatever poison he'd chosen to restrain her with.

"Liar!" She cried and pushed him back only to collapse on the ground herself. Amon kneeled quickly beside her limp body and watched the glow of her emerald eyes became fainter and fainter.

He'd cheated. He'd lied more cruelly than he thought he could. And yet, holding her and being sure he could save her was what weighted more. He lifted her face over his shoulder and looked at her for a moment there.

She was still physically weak so this time to trick had worked. She'd grow stronger though and next time he'd probably be defeated.

As he lifted her fully in his arms, her braid opened and the burning locks of her hair were freed over his arm. Just as it should be, he thought, watching her flames eat his armor. This was how it was meant to be.

* * *

_Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the Coven sank in the dark_

_i_ _know._

_don't_ _hide it from me._

_theres_ _no use._

_i'll_ _strip away the paint__ - and __wash away the lies_

_and_

_your_ _different faces don't phase me_

'**A Perfect Circle'**

* * *

**  
A/N: **Poems are Kitty's "Faces" in the premonition. 


	7. A Perfect Circle

A devil may cry: '_A Perfect Circle'_

His footsteps echoed in the hallway informing her of his return long before she even saw him. A whim made her lean back in her chair a little just as he passed by the door and she witnessed the truth of her defeat; she was in his arms like a lifeless doll that had no will of its own. Still he carried her gently, supporting her head and holding her as firmly as possible.

The older woman smiled at the sight and turned from them, concentrating on her papers and tea again. She sipped the strong liquid that replaced the cold of her fingers with unlimited warmth while her eyes scanned the papers and photographs of the sightings within the past few days.

Mayu's eyes were dull in each colourless picture and the air around her swirled inflicting each photograph with severe beauty mistakes: optical flaws that her Craft created. The woman remembered telling her subordinates that the cheesy stories about video material or photographs with witches being corrupted weren't true and that such subtle things as a single witch's Craft had no effect on machines. Now she had found the exception in that rule.

"Did you use Orbo?" She asked when the tall figure reappeared by her door. She then continued upon hearing no answer, "Not a very kind approach."

He didn't appreciate 'her meddling' as he called it when she did her job and showed it openly. Her comment made him distant and annoyed for a good reason, for after all, who wanted to be reminded of his own cruelty?

"What would you know of kindness?" Amon growled upon entering the room. He caught a glimpse of the blurry photographs on the table before she flipped them over and rose to her full height.

It'd never occurred to him before how much they resembled one another, this woman and _her_. Yet now that the suspicion had grown the link was obvious and rather expected from the Headquarters. Now the only question that remained was why they needed Robin?

The woman's eyes flickered at him and the mirage of an easy-going person vanished completely.

"Are you judging me now, _Amon_?" She asked and sat on her table with sullen eyes.

How had he been able to miss it for all these years? It should've been clear to him that this precise woman wasn't a human being and yet he'd been fooled by her act like an amateur. He'd known she was a hunter of the strongest, but that she was actually a witch herself had come as a shock.

Amon moved closer facing her fearlessly. He then released a threat finally remembering her name, "I want the truth now, Mio… or Meghan, or whatever your name is."

_Mio…_

Meghan's lower lip shook. Usually she was prepared better than this and be collected about hearing these things. Still when Amon said it, it sounded so vile. The intensity of her eye colour increased with aggression.

"So what?!" She snapped, jumping down from the table and grimacing at him. Her hand pulled the black ski cap down her head releasing a lock of her grey hair.

"So what, Amon? I hunt them, you hunt them… even she hunted them!" She drew her breath and made sure he was still listening to her and not planning his judgemental lies in his head after shouting her voice down.

"Freak," he said, calm unlike she was.

Her brow rose at this rather sarcastically and she pulled back from him. "Your mother was a witch."

And the truth hurt him; you could see it all over his face. Meghan hadn't wanted that, but she sure the hell wouldn't allow him to diminish her just because she wasn't brought to this world through the normal procedures.

"Do you think she'll trust you more after what you've done? Maybe she'll feel relieved to have a kinsman by her side. At least I can give her answers about the Originals."

She had a point, just as always. That smug woman had somehow turned the tables on him, even though he'd finally figured out her secret. It was hard to picture her as one of those test subjects, so he figured she'd had less power than any of the ones after her. Must've also been the only reason she was still alive and working for STN.

"And the price? You'll make her hunt the abomination from the Factory?" He countered her.

"Mayu was born unblemished, just as I was. Don't you dare take the blame from STN's shoulders. They meddled with things they shouldn't have." She then took a pregnant pause and gazed directly at him during it.

The drugs, the tests, the overall life STN had provided for the subjects and the Originals – it made Meghan sick to think of that. So many people had suffered just so that Toudou could've created the perfect subject, the Devil Child.

"If I had the power, I'd take back all the sacrifices they made to create your dear Robin," she said.

Amon's jaw tensed on account of her choice of words: _His dear Robin… _

"Even your own existence then?" He asked tilting his head slightly while he spoke.

Meghan didn't reply but her muscles relaxed informing him of her surrender. Guilt and sadness were readable in her again.

"She has to hunt down Mayu. There's too much at stake if she doesn't… You have no clue on what's happening yet but our problems will not end with Mayu."

There was deep anguish in her when she said that. He'd known all along she wouldn't deliberately hurt Robin, even though she and he were the opposite powers of the stream she was caught in. He didn't want Robin in the middle of this insanity, but was there any choice now?

She'd participate or be hunted.

"No," she said, breaking his concentration. "It's not about that. She's the Eve, remember?"

A chuckle accompanied that comment soon and her voice became slightly taunting, "What did you think it meant? '_Breed and spread across the land?_'"

Meghan's green eyes were tantalizing and they managed to captivate him completely for a moment. "Robin is elevating even as we speak and after the duel we will see which one is stronger."

Amon swallowed after she released him from her spell by turning away. "Why not you?" He asked approaching her carefully.

"As you've probably suspected, I only have a fraction of their power. I can see and sense what Toudou called 'the sketch', but I cannot alter it."

And if he had to guess, he'd place his money on her arm being riddled with needle marks as well. No wonder they had come up with a poison to hold back Robin's powers so quickly. It'd already existed and been in use with Meghan and the freak from the Factory. He had to admit that it was a useful gift for a hunter – being able to recognize a witch amid any crowd.

Amon could feel sympathy her now, but just almost. She'd made herself numb towards everything and even though she was an ally that clearly cared for Robin despite her claims that she didn't, he just couldn't appreciate her.

"Do me a favour Amon," she asked, looking at him over her shoulder.

He nodded.

"Let her go. Let her be with her own kind."

_But of course_, Amon thought while watching her. He almost smiled. Just because they were now on equable grounds didn't mean thing would be simple between him and her.

"She's not you," he said before leaving her.

* * *

Imouto-chan… 

_Who is that? Who are you looking for?_

Robin…

_Why did you call me that? Why are you looking for me?_

We need to shape the world together. The reunion is upon us. We are being called by it. Our Duty, imouto-chan.

_What Duty? Who are you?_

Onee-sama, Robin. We need to go together. Paradise is waiting for us.

_What about Mayu?_

You will hunt her.

* * *

A duel. 

Robin blinked her drowsy eyes while the picture started forming before them. Sharp fires were climbing her veins again; her body fought the poisons she'd been restrained with and the Ultimate Craft searched for a way to be back in her dispose. The joints in her hands were aching.

That voice in her dream… Robin tried to grasp it again, but it was already gone. It'd called her its little sister though somehow she suspected she had any real blood relatives. So maybe it'd been… the other twin?

She rolled on to her back and stared at the shadowed ceiling for awhile. Marcus had told her there were two Originals, twins, but the thought didn't seem right. That person's essence had been different from Mayu's, stronger and clearer somehow. But if Mayu was an Original, then what could that person be?

Things were becoming complicated and larger pictures swirled in the air above her questions. She knew that by travelling with the Craft she might learn these things, only she couldn't tap onto the Ultimate Craft right now. Amon had taken care of that brilliantly.

This made Robin lift her body from the bed and lean against the wall instead. Her pale hair cornered her face, still carrying traces of blood in it. She hadn't been able to stop for awhile now and fix her appearance. She must've looked horrible and pathetic to his eyes back then.

Robin buried her face in her hands. She already wished it was that time: the time when her battles were over and she could finally grow up in peace. She already missed Marcus and his sadness, though she fully acknowledged that this wasn't the time.

She felt a jolt pass through her hand and it jerked violently, forcing her to grasp it and bury it in her chest to keep it still. Her heart was beating faster than usually due the abnormal substances that'd entered her body. Every cell there rejected Orbo and battled its effects fiercely even now.

This misery was caused by one person, Amon, and that made him the enemy. No matter his motives were his objectives were wrong and she intended him to learn this from her.

The door by her right was opened a short woman, who entered her room striding forwards confidently. Robin examined her, focusing completely on the invader. Her senses were at their peaks and her pulse jumped higher now.

The woman wore a dark ski cap and some more formal clothes. She hid her eyes behind a pair of sunglasses. You could tell she was a field agent like Robin had once been. STN-J? No, Robin rejected the thought soon after. This woman was foreign by the looks of her.

"When I gave him witch hunting bullets, I assumed he'd have used them to hold back Mayu. Apparently he still walks his own way though," the woman said, pulling a chair from the wall and sitting down. Her voice was melodious, but very familiar to Robin, who couldn't quite remember where she'd heard it before.

It was when she removed the sunglasses that Robin experienced another kind of familiarity; this woman looked strangely alike to Mayu. Their faces, though Mayu's had been grinning madly where this woman was calm, shared the same expressions and had the same structure.

"Who are you?" Robin asked.

"My name is Meghan, a hunter and a witch," the stranger introduced herself without further explanations while leaning back on her chair.

"No," Robin shook her head. "That's not your name."

Meghan's eyes dropped from Robin's figure and she smiled almost apologetically. "It is the name I chose for myself. I'd rather use it, just as you would rather use Robin than your real name."

The hint worked making Robin completely silent. She'd been angry with Amon and attacked the first person around cruelly. Then again the resemblance with Mayu had also made her blood rush, due Mayu's obvious intentions to kill her.

"Tell me, please?"

Robin's plead came as a surprise to Meghan. She'd assumed Robin would ask about Amon and… The lines in Robin had changed now that she really looked into it. Sure, she was growing into her role as the Eve, but there was also a new kind of strength.

Perhaps Amon had really destroyed it this time.

Meghan nodded. "How much do you know about the Originals Toudou was working on?"

"Only what Marcus told me."

Robin's answer seemed to shake Meghan off-balance somehow and Robin watched the effects fade slowly from the other witch's face. "You know him, don't you?" She asked, realizing only now why Meghan had been upset.

"Marcus Monet… Yes, I know him. How could I not? I was your age when I first hunted him."

Robin remembered that, remembered seeing the raw truth in Marcus's words dancing above and around him like flames. She'd even seen Meghan then, but refused to watch any of it as she usually did.

Suddenly everything was connected. Marcus was strong enough to be in the same chaste with Mayu and Meghan, so it was only natural Meghan had hunted him down in the first place. Also the obvious answer to Meghan and Mayu's close resemblance was that Meghan was produced from the twins like Robin had been.

"Do you regret it?" Robin asked, already reading the answer from Meghan's face – She did, and why was obvious even to herself.

"It changed something?"

Meghan nodded. "He was just a boy, barely older than I was, and such a lovely sight. What they did to him was cruel."

"Why are you working for STN?" Robin wondered.

"I was raised by them, like you were. What other choice was there? Dying?"

_True enough… _But there was more to the link between Marcus and Meghan. Robin could sense it.

"Let's not meddle with things that do not concern us."

Meghan shot Robin with a warning look, making her face into stone. Apparently her bond with Marcus _was_ personal. They both emitted the same sadness and probably cherished the same memory. If only Robin could've seen…

"Some day you'll learn the meaning of privacy," Meghan continued while covering her eyes again. "And if not, the second sight should give you a hammering headache whenever you overuse it."

Meghan's light voice caught Robin's attention making her eyes light up. "You see it as well?" She asked and was rewarded with a nod.

"Then you should know-" Robin breathed breaking off her sentence hastily when Meghan interrupted her.

"No, she doesn't talk to me. She doesn't consider me family." Meghan smiled dreamily. "You and Mayu on the other hand… I think… No, I'm _positive_ she talks to you _both_."

"Then-" Robin swallowed her sudden distress. "She was the one who told Mayu to kill me?"

Meghan's look was approving. "You catch on things quickly, I see. Do you plan to solve this by talking?"

Robin shook her head defiantly at Meghan's suggestion. She'd seen enough of Mayu to know she wouldn't stop until she'd been crippled or killed. With enough time Mayu might start to punish innocent bystanders for Robin's cowardice behaviour. Robin already worried over Marcus.

"Understand that what they did to the witches in the Factory drove many insane. Mayu's constitution put up with everything and she survived, but not in her full senses," Meghan explained, leaning over her knees with her elbows. A lock of grey hair pushed through the ski cap's edge, reminding Robin of Mayu.

"However… Mio was never institutionalized like that. She was Toudou's pet, a lucid mind and the perfect subject."

So the twins were called Mayu and Mio? How was Mayu in such shape if Mio was alright? The apparent conflict bothered Robin and Meghan didn't seem to want to answer her. "Why would Mio have us duel?" Robin questioned, unable to understand how someone could subject their loved one to battle willingly. Suddenly she thought of Amon and the thought made her lean back, hurt and discomforted.

"She wants to know who's more powerful," Meghan answered, keeping her eyes to the grey floor. So that was it? They were to battle to death simply because Mio wanted the stronger one by her side?

"Toudou wasn't that lucid towards the end and Mio wants to realize his dream. The Devil Child was meant to be the Eve, the missing piece. Why do you think Toudou is dead?"

Robin swallowed and moved a strand of her hair behind her ear. She'd thought… somehow she'd wanted to believe that there'd been a noble cause behind Toudou's actions, behind her birth. How naïve had she been? Would've it been better to go down with the Factory? She shook her head almost violently and the other woman observed.

"I have no details. The meaning of the Eve exists now only in Mio's mind."

Meghan struck a dark chord in Robin's mind and it played its melancholy tune endlessly. No more words were needed, no more truths. Robin knew this was all she had to say and hear. And she couldn't ask for more help. She needed to get up, forget and become.

Meghan rose from the chair. "You should rest, she will too."

And with that she left Robin in her long required solitude. It didn't take her long to smother her tears against the pillow on her bed. Another shadow lingered by the door, holding onto the handle but eventually left without opening the door.

* * *

_Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the Coven sank in the dark_

_please, listen to me _

_I can't move __another step_

_to escape _

_there's no patience_

_and you force me to walk barefeet_

'**Cross to Bear'**

* * *

**  
A/N: **No poems this time around 


	8. Cross to Bear

A devil may cry: '_Cross to Bear'_

Flashing lights as if there was a freeway right by her window. They dazed her for a moment, returned her then to darkness before coming around for round two, three and four. Eventually she was forced to wake up and realize there was no window.

The Craft, Robin realized joyously and gave it a rare smile. It felt good to be back in control, have both of her thumbs up. She was still concerned though; trapped in the fear of having to meet Mayu too soon. Robin knew now their second meeting was inevitable and that fighting would also ensue whether she wanted it or not.

She also knew Mayu didn't hate her, or bear any resentment for her doings at the Factory. No, she'd unleashed Mayu that night; had her lose her way in the vast yet desert lands of her craft before finally learning to control her hands of terror again. Then she'd come to seek her out, guided by the kind of metallic red that only Robin could emit.

Earlier on Marcus had had to deal with the awakened Mayu, mistaken her for Meghan and suffered because of it. Now Mayu was clearer, had purpose since big sister had told her to defeat Robin and prove her worth. Why would Mio only accept the stronger one of them? And what did being the Eve truly mean? Only Mio knew and the only way to ask was to defeat Mayu.

This brought Robin down a bit. She hated violence and death, couldn't stand witnessing the fragile strings of life break. Amon didn't want her to fight either. He'd gone so far to stop her from doing anything against her will that he didn't realize she'd grown to accept she couldn't always have her way. He wanted to give her a seed of happiness, watch it grow and bloom. But he couldn't water it, couldn't participate emotionally. He just wanted to watch, to make sure he wasn't mistaken about her.

…Because in his mind she'd deserved to live.

Right now she couldn't see why or how. If he'd seen the good in her why couldn't he trust her? The dilemma was the same as her own; if she'd seen how cold and lifeless he was, why did she still care for him so? She had wanted to leave him on that day by the lake and ended up being held in his arms, defenceless and bare. She'd gained a view inside of him without warning.

The colour of his heartstrings, their layout, and the way life emitted from them; he wasn't dead!

He locked everything behind a curtain, a façade that never dropped. She was open to him, to everyone. Life was too short to be wasted like that, for her anyway. She might die, lose her mind and become as cold as the grave towards everything she appreciated.

Robin rose from her bed, concentrated on the material of her dress as she stroked her abdomen gently and allowed her magnificent mind to wander and fulfil her desires. Lines transformed, became something different yet the same. Her heavy hair became light and rose higher. When she was finished she belt better, safer somehow.

Her old dress, shirt and coat and her old hairstyle… everything was as it'd been when she'd first embraced her gift. Although older now, the circle felt complete. She'd come to terms with everything, it'd only taken time to realize that prolonging the inevitable hadn't made her any happier. Bitterness never came and the time for childish tantrums was over just like that.

Robin prepared by entering the world of colour, the painting, the sketch. She ignored familiar presences, told her not to be moved by their doings no matter who they were. Space shrunk into seconds and she found herself elsewhere where another similar mind dwelled.

Mayu slumbered however; unaware that she was being watched at all. Robin's tension dissolved quickly after she realized this and the young girl focused solely on examining her foe through her unveiled eyes. Disorder was everywhere in Mayu, imprinted on her skin like invisible ink only Robin was meant to see. Mayu was insecure; she needed Mio's acceptance more than anything because it was the only thing that might justify her existence, give her a meaning.

She also saw the envy in her foe; the way Mayu had wanted to tear the bond between Marcus and Meghan apart upon first recognizing it but also the way Mayu had trembled in happiness when she'd realized Robin was just as alone as she was. It was unsound and yet Robin forgave all that malice that had gathered in her _sister_. STN had done terrible things to Mayu, stolen her life and tried to reorder her anyway they willed; Meddled with things too difficult for humans to understand.

Robin might've been able to fix her. Yes, now that she looked at the injury in Mayu's core she knew she could do it. She would have to defeat Mayu but afterwards she'd surely allow her to remove the chaos and give her clarity.

Her plan made her so happy. Then she could see Mio and Mio would tell her everything and together they would stop the madness. The violence would seize and Robin could finally have the family she'd wanted from God when she was young.

She pulled back from the sketch upon hearing a noise back in the space she was in physically. It didn't take her long to veil her eyes again and prepare for her arriving visitor. The knocking sound repeated itself a few times during which she was ready to move to the door to open to, but could not execute that thought. Eventually the door handle was pushed down and the door opened. She waited with her heart in her throat, refusing to use her vision to see who it was. It was more exciting this way; she had hope – Of what though she didn't know.

Her instinct served her right however as Amon entered the room, closing the door behind him. Robin felt like her body diminished into a fragment when he finally looked at her with his calm and intellect eyes. She noticed he'd braided his raven hair and that he had cleaner clothes now. It was like he'd seen some effort before seeing her maybe?

Robin's insecurities crumbled every word she might've said to kill the tension that'd begun building in the silent room. He'd kissed her last time around, she remembered suddenly, placing her fingers over her lips as a reflex of sort. Even he seemed to flinch when she did that and stir the slightest bit. All her anger was gone already and all she had left was a shell inside her fist that she refused to let go of. It was filled with raw despair.

When he'd kissed her he'd fundamentally changed everything between them. He'd no longer been the guide, or the guardian. Despite its meaning the kiss had been soft, and warm, and inviting. And she was a fool for liking that lie, because she knew he couldn't have meant it. Yet at that moment all her wishes had been fulfilled. For the smallest time she'd been sure he would trust her and allow her to help him as well.

_Cruel, he was too cruel! _

Her eyes swelled with tears. The anger returned with the humiliation and the feeling of being utterly betrayed. She blinked the tears away, taking hold of her emotions before they got out of hand. She'd listen to what he had to say.

"Amon." Her voice sounded weak, half-hearted and joyless to his ears. It tore him apart more than insult or refusal from her. It hurt him more than Meghan's innuendos and pleads.

"Robin." He returned her name with more emotion. His voice was kind, gentle, but not caressing. He was worried, wasn't he?

Amon had frozen before her at first; taken aback by the apparition he thought had replaced his Robin. She looked precisely as she had one year ago, even though he knew she'd changed and abandoned much of her old self when they'd begun running together and holding each other up till the exhaustion came. Why did she look like that? Did she want to prove to him that the year between this and the Factory had been erased from her mind and that they were nothing more than formal acquaintances?

He couldn't understand why this affected him so, or why guilt had even driven him here in the first place. He'd been so afraid she wouldn't understand his motives, wouldn't forgive him for… _Wouldn't forgive what?_

His mind traced its way back to that time at the lake, the feel of her in his arms and the warmth he'd been filled with when he'd looked at her and _known_. He'd come to know of her love. She loved him so selflessly! So what he'd been so afraid of was really about going too far; hurting her so deep she'd let her love wither and vanish.

Now she waited to see what he had to say. Suddenly this wasn't about his betrayal or him forcing her to bend. It was about what she'd sensed when he'd kissed her. The despair she'd felt in him. The same despair that'd driven him to overpower her the only way he could. She was a demigod now and he was mortal. And the only reason she stood by him was her love.

"You felt compelled, didn't you?" she finally asked, letting go of her fears and almost of her hopes as well. She didn't look him in the eye anymore, but stared sternly at the bottom of the door where the floor met with the walls.

"You believe I need to be controlled, because I have too much power for an inadequate soul like me."

It was an accusation but nowhere near as hostile as it could've been. Amon took a step closer, his hands still neatly behind his back. "I think you have enough power for a god. No one should be made to wield it alone."

At least he was honest. Robin glanced at him quickly, then returning her eyes to the floor. "After everything, you don't think I can handle it?" she asked next, unable to shift her eyes away from him once she'd made herself do it for the second time. And to her surprise he continued his approach calmly. She didn't feel threatened at all.

"I knew that once you used it someone with equal power or more would see you as well. That's what I would protect you from. Not lunacy."

Even though he was still demanding, she felt relived. He'd admitted he feared for her for reasons that weren't about her weakness, reasons that didn't diminish her into a helpless little girl. Did that mean he'd lied when he'd said he'd be there to protect her from herself? She was still confused about him and couldn't make herself cheat and look at him to see the truth.

Amon's hand landed on her shoulder when she didn't look back up at him but hid her eyes. Agony lived in them, he knew. She swallowed hard, finding solace in his gentle grip. "If you trust me, then why-" she started, but got caught off by his thumb that landed on her lips. Amon was torturously close now, his intensive eyes poured into hers, wanting her to feed his truth and make into their truth.

"Back then I wanted to make sure you would be anchored to something, someone. I figured that way you'd never fall," he revealed. The sincere shine in his eye stabbed her again and again.

"But to you that person already existed… in me."

So he knew, Robin realized, somewhat relived that she didn't need to pretend anymore. It was pretending that had made everything so much harder between them. She could predict what he about to say next and pulled back from him, lifting her gaze for defence.

"I know," she quickly confessed, feeling stronger than him for being able to cut him off. Amon was clearly disturbed that she didn't allow him to continue and tried to say what he wanted to say. She motioned him silent before he could do so however.

"You believed that by staying with me, I'd be content; that I'd be fooled into never embracing any of this."

The accusation was strong and true. Things weren't that simple though and he wanted her to understand it. If he'd just tried to keep her in a cocoon then why was he so scared of her feelings turning to negative? She'd surely find someone else to focus them on, someone more suitable, younger. And he'd boil inside for knowing this.

They were supposed to be together, him guarding her, her harbouring those feelings and bewitched by them. But it wasn't her that was bewitched, was it? No, it was Amon. He needed her as much or perhaps more than she needed him.

"True," he admitted. There was no use hiding his former intentions now, after all she could see them from him if she truly wanted to.

Robin felt almost disgusted; all their time together he'd faked to keep her power contained. The little things that'd made her closer to him than anyone else: secrets, shared experiences, single moments… everything seemed so pointless to cherish right now. An illusion of intimacy shattered in her mind.

"But I couldn't be like that. In time I realized I really wanted to be there with you."

Empty words. Empty shells of convincing talk. She didn't want to hear anymore!

Robin refused his touch, refused his body that tried to draw her close for an embrace. She pulled free furiously and he fought back wearily, already remembering their last encounter. In the small brawl he managed to break the strings her hair was tied with and her golden hair fell back on her shoulders messily. The defiance remained though and he gave up eventually, already exhausted and tired of their fighting.

"I've been making you into something you're not," she said quietly, her face turned away from him so that he only saw her neck connect to her jaw and cheek. "It really has to stop. You wanted normality in my life but I have none. Therefore it is better I fight and see what I was really put into this world for."

She was abandoning him and no brawl between them was changing that. He could've drugged her again – or at least tried – and still she'd remain this decisive. He wasn't made of special lines and couldn't fight alongside her now. From here on there'd only be the wielders of the Ultimate Craft and their conflict in the spotlight.

**murder**

Robin could trace the beginning of her insecurities to a day that'd happened such a long time ago. In her eyes it was golden and brown. She should've cut their bond back then; she'd been saved from all this pain. If she had only realized what she knew now!

**murder**

He'd come out of the ally, ablaze but not burning. His eyes scrutinizing her terror, enjoying it openly before Amon had shielded her. They'd wrestled and been pulled apart by the police. He'd been left on the ground, shaking and she'd taken the steps next to him. Access to the painting had been clear and revealed the roots growing inside of him, taking over.

**murder**

She'd removed them, string by string, undoing their evil. By the time she'd been done Amon had broken free, grabbed her arm and they'd run. On the street behind her, he'd been confused but unable to inflict terror on her ever again: Pure and unblemished again. Later on she'd told Amon, watched as he'd grown alert. The impact of failure written all over his face, he'd grasped for the gun but been unable to take it from its pocket. After that she hadn't told him about the progress of the Craft in her again.

**murder**

A few nights from that she'd been standing outside, smelling the air, walking on the wet grass and he'd come back to her. Gratitude wasn't all he'd told her of; he'd told her other tales of horror, pleaded for her to save others as well. And she had really wanted to so they'd run together. But they hadn't been the only ones running and soon it'd grown into a chase. For once, she'd wished they'd never been caught; just left running like that as long as possible. She'd been free.

**murder**

He'd been rewarded with a bullet, and another. Even while waiting for his death rattle to begin he'd begged her to carry on, save as many as she could. She was the only one who could, their Eve. He said her face filled him with clemency, acceptance. He squeezed her hand and she screamed an accusation at Amon, wanted to hurt him with her fists and broke down in his arms. She'd never cried like that, and never wanted to again. When Amon leaned over the dying man his wrist was caught and the dying had mocked him until the end came.

"Kane," she whispered and grasped his shirt inside her fists suddenly as her body began convulsing again and pain redefined everything around her. His hands were strong enough to hold when she no longer had the strength to stand and the irises of her eyes were drained from colour. To block it out she imagined she was single lonely moth in the air, flying.

He was reliving that time he'd last held her like that. He inhaled her scent, brought them both down on the floor and shielded her. But it was more than that; the circle was opening again, the veil from his eyes and through their vision everything was on fire. People: her red and his green and the millions of other colours out there. He didn't stare like he'd done last time though; no he moved through spaces, became utterly disconnected from the fires in his mind while he did this.

Time was compressed there; future, present, past all together as layers upon layers: Each being and thing with a colour and texture and dimension. The pain was striking through his vision now, real blood running down his forehead but he couldn't stop. Now that he had this ability he needed to use it, needed to take advantage of this chance for her.

One glance at his Robin proved a point for her lines _were _reordering themselves. She was becoming better, more suitable as the host of this gift. And they were now near the end. It'd come so quick, without a warning almost. He couldn't hold her back, never had been able to.

A strange kind of loneliness ran through his veins, filled him and overlooked him, slowly tightening its tendrils around him so that he could buried into this emptiness until would end. Had it always been this close to ending and he'd just shut his eyes and looked past this knowledge? And everything was tainted, wrong somehow. Should he be alone or with someone? Shouldn't he be here with her?

Déjà vu.

The moment of choice; be with her or be without her. He'd always assumed being with her meant keeping her with him, not letting her go. What if, what if being with her was just following her for a change? He never wanted to wake up and realize she wasn't there, sitting in the living room and drying her hair.

He was released, the world returned to normal while she was frozen inside the truth. Amon didn't think anymore, he became like she did. He tied his arms around her, took a good hold of her legs and torso and lifted her up. Her head fell over his chest, eyelids trembling like her lips did. After that he didn't stop walking.

Corridors changed and he moved out with no regrets. Her scarred wrist rested upon her abdomen, reminding him of his blindness. What good was being with her if she wasn't happy? He'd made her do things she never would've, selfishly believing that the cause made up for her suffering. It didn't, never had.

He'd believe in her from now on like she'd believed in him. Maybe somehow after all that fighting was done there'd be a paradise for them. Nothing complicated because imperfections were what made things beautiful. Just a simple plan: him, her and a sanctuary.

Eventually they were climbing up the stairs of their home. Bad memories resided there and yet it was where she combed her hair in the mornings, it was where he secretly looked at her and tried to overcome his guilt. He opened the door and inside he lay her down. It shouldn't feel this safe here but it did.

STN might seek them out, or they might not. If the twins would resurface in their search for Robin perhaps STN was too busy in damage control. Besides they had to know by now Robin wasn't theirs.

He squatted down next to her, tried to find reason in her still eyes. She'd been gone for hours many times and he had not wondered when she'd returned in her drained glory because eventually she had come back. Now he realized she'd left him to suffer this alone and then come back. He'd seen the real version only once before and if she'd had it her way, he never would've.

He closed her eyelids, brought another blanket to keep her warm and then he sat down on the floor next to her. A convulsion made her arm fall over his shoulder. He removed his gloves and took her hand inside his then.

Until the curtains fell this would have to do as their sanctuary.

* * *

_Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the Coven sank in the dark_

_You knew about it_

_How they __tear apart__ and __disarm_

_yet_

_you would look away _

_you would forget_

_and_ _they would only __love__ you more_

'**Misantropy'**

* * *

**  
A/N: **No poems this time around either 


	9. Misanthropy

A devil may cry: '_Misantropy'  
_

The pulse was strong. His lifeline pressed against hers softly; it was assuring, wanted to tell her it was safe to return. She could tell the difference without her magical eyes but wasn't sure if it was a dream or not. So she remained still, afraid to let go of him and see for herself what was real. Just like all the other times she'd watched him in his sleep she was now paralyzed and admiring him. It hurt to think he'd awaken and become himself again if she moved.

She could remain here forever. Ignore the call of arms and Mayu's challenge. Hadn't Amon always been what she'd desired most? Each time he'd lingered by the door she'd been quick to pull him in from his arm, the wound within only opening more and more until she had nothing left to spill.

This was euphoria - just by being able to touch his bare skin. It was close enough for her.

Then he spoke, fully awake and imprinted with melancholy. "Robin…"

"Do you need to go already?" he asked, making the illusion of the dream shatter. The pieces fell and became many and rearranged themselves. Why was there such sadness in him?

"No, not yet," she answered, oblivious to what had changed him so. This encounter was strange, unfamiliar. He still didn't let go of her hand and outside the twilight was comforting blue.

He'd changed, come to realize the error in his way and now he just wanted one more day with her: One more day before she had to meet the Originals. Time was deceiving; although it promised it never waited for anyone, it never faltered.

"Will you stay here and not run away?" he asked.

His eyes were contemplating everything he'd seen and done and the more he'd thought about it the stronger his faith in her had grown. She wasn't a child, never had been. He wasn't chained anymore and he wanted to tell her that. Like in the miracles she'd performed with witches he'd been salvaged by her, fixed and put together.

His thumb stroked the back of her hand slowly, cruelly. She stared at the ceiling, gathering her courage to look at him. Because she had to know this wasn't another plot to deceive her. She never knew what he was thinking anymore. The eyes saw through even his barriers, found the secrets and dreams he carried. But she hadn't wanted to know. She had wanted to keep her hope.

He sensed her hesitation, yet made no attempt to remove it. Whatever doubts she had where there for a reason. He'd made them all happen with his actions. If she saw only the means and not the reason he couldn't sway her mind even if he tried.

She sat up, her hand slowly pulling away from his grip. He didn't turn towards her like she'd expected him to but admired the scenery instead. She wanted to sink her hand in his hair, wrap her around him and not have _to look_ to know.

"Why did you bring me here?" Robin asked, placing her hand over his shoulder as she leaned closer. A shiver passed through him, filled his lungs with torture as her cheek was pressed against his temple.

"To be with you."

_That's really what he'd always wanted. _

STN had taught him control was the way to get what you wanted. They'd told her chaos needed to be tamed. It was no way to happiness. A world of freedom could never be based on trust. Hadn't he seen it with his mother? Hadn't he trusted her and been bitterly cast away, deemed worthless when the moment came?

"I'm here. I'm not leaving yet," she promised finally.

Robin couldn't help but feel anguished relief that tainted her voice and made tears gather in her eyes. He trusted her. He finally truly trusted her! All this time they'd danced on razors and she'd feared he'd never realize he mattered too much to her for her to betray him.

Her arms were around his neck and the vision she had was her own. This was enough. She didn't need anything else.

For once he enjoyed just being there without dreaming of a rush, an action or a more desirable state. He was content.

But surely they couldn't remain this way forever. There was a black hole out there that devoured more and more with every passing minute and his face was cold. She brought her hand palm on his cheek and felt the difference of temperature between their skins. He'd wearied himself, tried his best for her.

"You're cold," she said, almost agonized by the revelation. Amon didn't reply; he didn't know what she expected of him. But Robin was Robin even now, always caring and nurturing. Her hand slid from his face and closed around his hand. She then pulled him up, motioned him to follow her to the kitchen and made him sit down.

She boiled water for him, found the collection of teabags she'd gathered together during their travels and picked him one. Any action would do its task; distract her from what was happening. As much as she'd anticipated this she was afraid of it, didn't know what to do or how to act.

She returned to the table bearing the hot cup in her hands. "Would you like something else?"

He took her hand, landed it on his shoulder then tracing her clothed arm back up her shoulder and to her back. He then pulled her closer, making her sit on his lap and tying his hands around her lower back to keep her there. She was bemused and willing but scared. His fingertips pushed into her open hair around her temple and she shivered against that touch.

He didn't look like Amon with his open eyes and loose white shirt. But he felt the same while being new. His hand was caressing her neck now and she grasped his shirt, took a bundle of it inside her fist when she finally leaned in to kiss him. Defeat the fear before it defeats you.

Once their lips parted he kissed her again and she moved against him, straddled him to get closer. There was nothing innocent in the second kiss; it wasn't even tentative as the first had been. It was raw, passionate. She finally dared to touch him and he finally knew he wasn't insane for thinking of her like that.

* * *

_Robin…_

Mio.

_You would abandon our Paradise? For him?_

Why must we fight? I can fix her, I know I can.

_Because it would be pointless. I can only embrace one. The true Eve, Robin. Only the Eve._

What if I'm not her? What if the Eve is Mayu? Her only desire is to destroy.

_Then that is the face of Paradise_.

* * *

He held her close like she was about to slip through his fingers any minute now. It amused her a bit, flattered her even more. This apartment had never like home before, but now it did.

It'd gotten late; only the steel flowers on the streets lit the sky anymore and with the absence of light Robin's anxiousness only grew more and more. Something inside her was writhing, struggling even now. An eye for an eye, it told her.

She wanted to be deaf to it, just be here while she still could but the call was too strong. Mio's previous cruelness worried her, only adding to her anxiety. She'd become accustomed to her title, the saviour, the Eve. What if all she had was a life stolen from Mayu?

Wasn't that why Mio urged them to fight? To claim the title they both must've wanted so badly for different reasons. To Robin it gave meaning, but to Mayu it gave acceptance. And now… now that she no longer had to seek for her sanctuary elsewhere, she didn't need a meaning. She didn't have to be the Eve, she could be just Robin.

The sensations, voices, the Craft perhaps, they told her she couldn't give up though. They sensed the ominous tone in Mio's voice when she'd told her that the Eve determined the face of Paradise. By giving up, would she allow Mayu to access to something far more dangerous? What if there was a decision that Mayu would make according her wrath and not her heart?

That is why she couldn't trust her to be the Eve. She couldn't trust someone so scorn and hateful to have any kind of responsibility. She'd already seen how Mayu used her Craft for evil.

She'd walked to the closet midway through her thought, begun taking out warmer clothing and accessories. Her glasses were still intact in their case, most of her clothes smelled fresh and new. She threw her dress over her head quickly and pulled on a shirt and jeans. Then her knee socks, gloves, something to contain her hair with; she put everything in place with haste. She put her glasses on her face last and saw the world blur through them.

She could've fixed her sight easily but hadn't really wanted to for Amon had given these glasses to her. Giving them up was like giving up the memory. Besides she liked her faults, they made her remember she was no immortal or deity, just human.

Then she was already at the door, pulling her tall boots on and the coat. She froze for a second, felt him from across the walls and space that was between them and hesitated. He was awake, waiting but not interfering in any way. She wasn't selfish enough to blind herself now and he knew it. He just turned his side, closed his eyes and let her go.

Robin rose and turned before she could betray her intentions. Tonight was the night. She reached for the door and opened it. Behind there was a vast darkness where only tainted colours lived. She was out there somewhere, preparing for their showdown in her own way.

Her Craft led her through the quiet scenery like a torch in the darkness. There were signs everywhere, hints of Mayu all around their current location. Robin could see she'd been out there, waiting and then growing tired of waiting and gone elsewhere instead. But if Mayu had been so close why hadn't she just attacked? Wouldn't have that been easier?

She followed the trail without understanding. All over was her scent, her sodden smell that reflected her disgust towards everything now. She was not tuned and thus could not produce a beautiful sound when she tried to. Robin pitied Mayu. If she was never taken to the Factory, would've Mayu still hated this creation so passionately? Why was she so hell bent on being in Mio's good graces anyway?

Robin stopped for a moment to fist her hands. There were fireworks in the horizon, or at least that is how they appeared to be to the untrained eye. In reality, Robin knew they were the lines of the painting, quivering in the grip of a terrible might. It had to be Mayu. Robin was thankful that her foe had at least chosen a desolate place outside of town for her onslaught.

She memorized the lines in the sky, and then the ones inside herself. She could hear Mayu's silent invitation; it roared like a force of nature that couldn't be stopped or destroyed. Robin almost smiled, knowing she couldn't have ignored that call even if she'd wanted to. Every cell in her body responded to it, hailed the similar spirit in the distance. She finished her mental preparations now, inhaled calmly and then pulled herself out of time and place for one moment.

She was replaced quickly though; the lines on the sky and Mayu's magnetic presence guided her to the right place. She was even allowed to pull herself together in peace even after she'd fully appeared at their battle field in one piece. Robin shook the painting from her eyes and placed them on the figure emerging from the darkness then. She had grey hair as always and green eyes that sparked in Robin's presence.

All around them there was nothing but rock and barren land as far as Robin could see. She could smell ash in the air and blood in the soil though, which didn't leave her fully convinced with Mayu's good intentions. Robin instantly spotted the blood dripping down her nemesis' arm and her eyes narrowed in surprise.

"I've been waiting for you, _golem_," Mayu spoke with utter contempt and even spat her bloody saliva on the ground beside her. Her expression was cruel, denying. Robin had also noticed how Mayu called her a golem, like she was mindless being, a mere duplicate of the original. Was she?

The Original shook her head though, as if she'd heard Robin's unspoken comments and was frustrated by her poor level of information. "He strove to approach god and he was given the power of creation. In the hands of mere humans it produces nothing but golems: Creatures of mud and shadow when compared to the originals."

She was talking about Toudou, wasn't she? A scientist, who'd proceeded to create new life from the prodigious twins he'd found. He'd created her, placed her in her mother's womb and named her Eve according to a plan she still could not see. In a sense Mayu was right.

"Mayu." She couldn't vocalize anything but her enemy's name at that time since her eyes were too fixed on the obvious disadvantages Mayu was displaying. She was hunching to cover the fact she couldn't lay any weight on her left leg and her wounded arm hung on her side like a lifeless piece of meat. Had someone attacked her?

"We have a problem… I still want to see that bitch and close my hands around her neck until there's no life left in her. But you, you worthless being, also want this privilege." More mockery and contempt escaped her lips but Robin couldn't be anymore surprised now. Mayu grimaced at Robin, licked her bloodstained teeth and spat on the ground again. "You want everything from me," Mayu finally confessed.

Everything? What exactly was it that she'd taken from Mayu before? She most certainly hadn't done it willingly!

Instead of gloating, or allowing Mayu to hurt her though, Robin stepped forward allowing her sympathy to resurface. "Who hurt you?" She asked.

"Who hurt me? She hurts me; you hurt me – who else could touch an avatar?" Mayu was starting to appear more desperate than bloodthirsty. Had she been… beaten into submission?

Robin stepped closer to the Original again and scanned through her body to see just what she'd been hurt with. Broken, twisted lines - she'd definitely been hurt with the Craft. "We don't have to fight," Robin whispered hopefully, truly believing her words.

"Yes we do," Mayu replied, rather breathing out the words than pronouncing them. "There can be only one Eve, the original Eve! Only one exists to approach divinity."

Why? Robin's mind was still craving for the answers, needing them desperately to understand. Approaching divinity? What on earth had Toudou planned?

"Are you going to kill Meghan too?" Robin asked, remembering that strange woman with her ski cap and distance. She was the weakest link in their quartet, unimportant enough to avoid Mio's attention.

Mayu laughed a deep guttural laugh accompanied by a smirk that her tired features barely supported. "We see so much and yet it's dim where it should be the clearest," she answered. Again a vicious look took over her face and she pointed her index finger at Robin threateningly.

"Privilidged?" She questioned. "No, neither of us is until she says so. She makes us run and chase her while she hides behind her façade, manipulating and whispering. She has to die! Then we can bury the Eve with her."

Such raw hatred and envy lied in Mayu's being. She hated the sister that'd lived happier, while she'd been forced to endure torture, testing, an unconscious life of hallucination and addiction to whatever kept the lie going.

"Took me awhile too," Mayu continued, dragging her body closer to Robin, although she was clearly weakening. "To notice there were just three."

Robin could read it in Mayu now; the secret she'd been unable to find in Meghan. She was the Original, Mio. She hunted her own, hid behind another name, waited for them to duel to see which one was still standing at the end of the day. And why; because she wanted the real Eve and knew what Toudou had planned to do. Why had Meghan lied to her? Why hadn't she told her who she was?

"You're twins!" She cried out, unwilling to believe one sister would go against the other. Her comment didn't raise much feeling in Mayu though.

"To her, there are only casualties and the Eve. No sisterhood, no bloodline, nothing. She's his disciple. Dedicated. Insane."

There was calmness in her opponent now, like she too had grasped the true view instead of the million other options thrown at her. She sounded almost lucid, sensible. But she really wasn't, was she? Mayu still felt the ghost sensations: sounds, noise, voice of the dead, convulsions of her withdrawal symptoms and all the while she was devoid from anything of her own. She felt everything and nothing.

"But I'm equally broken. You, _the faker_, are the only one who's stable. You adjusted properly."

Meghan had been kind to her, told her what she needed to hear and encouraged her. She'd been without her sight when first seeing her, unable to see the truth. Yet something about her hadn't been right: A sadness she felt for the ones she'd hunted, an acceptance for the cruelty she had to perform as the way of life. Was it all a mask to hide her true intentions or was she as divided as Mayu, struggling to move on but unable to because of everything?

Mayu was surprisingly calm, hadn't even attacked her yet. It must've been because she was leaking, slowly fading away. She didn't think she was winning anymore, did she? And with that thought Mayu already fell on the ground, sat down stubbornly and refused to lie down despite the pain that made her grind her teeth. Robin approached her again and didn't get refused.

"She _wants it to be you_? Rigged the… rigged…" Tears dug into the dirt that covered Mayu's cheeks and she stared at a point somewhere behind Robin where the sky met with the ground.

When Mayu had first attacked her Robin had truly feared for her life. Now she knew Mayu was just burning out, had been ever since the Factory. One dies, one lives: those were the rules Mio had set for their duel and now it looked like it was happening without them even fighting. Part of Robin wanted to fix Mayu, but she didn't know how, no enlightenment approached her now – not even when she looked at Mayu's torn figure closely with her Craft filled eyes.

Even if she did know how, would she? Mayu would attack her, she have to kill her to live and it'd be all for nothing. But they were sisters in a sense, both carried the same blood. It did hurt Robin's eyes to see her nemesis this way, because she'd never wanted this fight for survival to exist between them in the first place. Robin tied her arms around Mayu, held her together tightly.

"In my creation… everything would burn…," Mayu laughed, her hands limp on her sides. She didn't answer the embrace nor did she deny it. It was more than she'd ever gotten from her twin. Ah, how the mocking of Mio haunted Mayu even now.

"Mio looked back at me and then at him, and said: make me a new sister, _a better one_." The contempt in Mayu's voice was poison, but Robin just held her tighter, feeling the hurt she felt like it was her own. Soon the occasional laughs became sobs and Mayu hid her face in Robin's chest.

Her dying rattle was hoarse and hollow in Robin's ears. She shed tears upon hearing Mayu's final request:

"Kill her for me… would you, imouto-chan?"

* * *

_  
Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the Coven sank in the dark_

_I was once told_

_of a shining future and path_

_when incoherent dreams_

_when incoherent deeds_

_become a single ideal and seize to be_

'**Serpent'  
**

* * *

**  
A/N: **No poems this time around either 


	10. Serpent

A devil may cry: _'Serpent'_

By morning she was already back. She bit her lip, sitting in the living room and combing through her moist hair almost apathetically. Her stare was blank, her movement almost programmed. One hundred strokes and her hair would shine and Amon would watch her, thinking she was ethereal. Oh how half of her heart wanted things to be back the way they'd been before she'd met Mayu.

The information had taken her breath away when she'd finally realized that the woman in her arms was no longer breathing. Her vicious eyes had lost that aggressive shine and become ever so passive, submissive even. She'd accepted her fate, let death take her and cleanse her from her pain.

Another witch she could've saved had died for the sake of lunacy – for absolutely nothing. Even if Mayu was no Kane, she deserved tears and genuine sorrow. Robin had never been able to voice this thought aloud, but now it seemed natural: Mayu had been her sister. A sick older sister that'd brought much grief to her, but a sister never the less.

Her hand froze and the comb brushed deeper the next time it moved through her hair. It grazed her scalp painfully, and when she closed her fist around the wet moist hair and comb, water dripped all over her.

The disease had been visible in Mayu after her death; Robin recognized its layout easily and could finally give it a name. Mayu had fallen, become addicted to the power. She'd sustained herself that way, been able to shut out the rejection of her sister and the damage to her mind and body.

Robin could've fixed her. She could've fixed everything, and yet she'd allowed Mio to play her around, have her dance according to the big plan. Robin had been angry though she probably shouldn't have been. She'd been angry at Mayu, at herself, for everything. For awhile she'd believed being the Eve was something noble and worthy of being. Instead it made her a murderess, a gambler that was ready to waste everything so that Mio could chase a noble but foolish dream.

This is what she'd seen in Mayu: the contempt her sister had for Toudou's plans. He'd really thought that a witch with the power of gods existed, and when he'd found the twins he'd been sated and hadn't needed to look further. He'd destroyed their lives, made one into an ambitious fanatic, the other into a suffering sociopath. Even in his death he'd caused trouble, albeit his hand hadn't reached Robin as Father Juliano had taken care of that. She hadn't been exploited or mauled, but given a chance.

Robin had raked Mayu's entangled grey hair. She hadn't known what to do with her, or Mio. Until now Mio had been nothing but calm surface, unreadable and enthralling. Mayu had seen the other side though: the witch with a possessive glare and the hands of terror as her weapon. Mayu had feared those hands, frozen when she should've fought her twin. Now she was dead.

Robin had given Mayu what she could. Fire had consumed her dead body, given her an ending she would've deserved. She'd burned brightly in Robin's flames, left no other trace behind than the place in Robin's heart, where she'd sealed her memories in. They were heavy thoughts Robin did not wish to think but could not ignore either. They were the truth – the answers to the questions she'd wanted Mio to answer.

Of course Mio wouldn't, she was in hiding from Robin having thrown away the guise of Meghan. She had things to do before she could confront her – things that were very essential to her plan, to unravelling the Eve. And no matter how Robin had cried to Mio with her Craft-filled voice and tried to seek for her remaining sister in the painting, Mio simply wasn't there. She was strong like a stream with a strong pull that prevented Robin from reading into anything. Mio simply drowned her in information she couldn't grasp.

Robin could only assume Mio had already made her peace with her sister.

The ceremony had been short. She'd stood before Mayu alone, spoken aloud about her doubts and thoughts, confessed that her fear had kept her from helping Mayu. Robin had asked for forgiveness, for the Lord to look after Mayu now and give her shelter she'd not had while still alive. Her fire had been fierce and hungry. Mayu had turned black in mere moments, and vanished for good in small time.

The flames had raged for some time after there was nothing to burn, just venting the storm within Robin: The shame, the sorrow, the anger. Because she known it'd been Mio who had harmed Mayu; she'd known that Mio had turned her hand on her sister for the last time for the sake of her ideal world, and it was unforgivable. Not one, but two sisters were controlled by the fury of the craft, and the remaining one Robin wasn't sure she even wanted to save.

She cried again, the tears were the silent kind, but enough to alert Amon, who had entered the room awhile ago. He'd settled to watch her, try and see what it was that'd shattered her confidence this way. He'd tried to understand before helping her. She'd begun crying before he had, forcing him from his stay and onto her side.

When he pulled her in his arms, she didn't even stop to look at him, just accepted his sheltering embrace and sunk deep into it. Her green eyes were strangely tainted, as if far away from this reality and yet not within the painting. It worried Amon. It was the look he'd seen on the faces of hundreds of fallen witches. The sharpness in her glare was gone, replaced by something dim and soft.

* * *

There were two children in the vision Mayu had chosen to share with her on her dying breath. The twins were dressed in similar fashion in maroon hospital dresses. Both had red ribbons in their grey hair and they were holding hands. Their hair was trimmed and their nails cut. Looking at them like that, her sisters seemed united in a way she'd never seen. They never let go of each other's hands. Robin almost felt jealous for that connection.

The children were given toys and a serene environment to play with them while experiments were conducted. Someone turned on the heat and when it bothered the children one would look aware for a moment before the temperature would drop to a desired degree. Nothing seemed to disturb them; they were pleasantly quiet and obedient children despite their godlike power.

Toudou named _his children_; gave them similar names with enough personality to separate the two. As the children grew it became evident that Mayu was the more aggressive one, always needing to know the reason behind everything. She had vast curiosity. Mio instead was calm and never allowed her feelings to surface. She withstood any trials and passed them brilliantly. Where Mayu could be brought to her limits through irritation – usually when she was separated from her sister – Mio showed no signs of such anxiety.

Their craft was considered much too dangerous after Toudou's initial research had ended and his report saw daylight. It was the Headquarters' desire to incapacitate the twins and keep them sedated for the rest of their natural lives, as they weren't willing to kill such powerful test subjects. For this purpose Toudou created the inhibitor, commonly referred to as the vaccine by Solomon. It suppressed the twins' powers successfully.

Mayu's anxiety grew through precognitive nightmares that her sister never suffered from. Rebellion began inside Mayu, her raging emotions were unchecked and she tried to wage war with the researchers. Toudou's diagnosis was quick and efficient, no emotion clouded his judgement. Mayu was driven delusional by her immense powers and would soon become a real threat to everything around her. The decision to contain her was also made quickly.

Mio was completed enthralled by Toudou. Her powers awakened slower than Mayu's and the vaccine kept her fully in check, which is why Toudou was able to make her fear her own sister. Mayu's resistance was put down easily when they came for her as it was her own sister that had entangled her with the Craft and made her an easy target. Solomon buried Mayu for centuries, focusing on the pliant sister and her slumbering potential.

Robin was the project that was meant to harvest the true potential of the twins. She was literally created from the twins, but given enough genetic makeover for her to not be a simple clone. Her surrogate mother Maria Colegui was touched by Toudou's dream for Robin. The researcher saw his experiment as the birth of a new world. He was convinced he had built a witch that was unable to be seduced by the promises of a delusional mind. He was convinced Robin would cure the world.

His ideals were his downfall however. Solomon had never intended Toudou's research to go so far and they were not willing to allow such a powerful being into existence without means to control her. Toudou tried convincing them it could be done – he had tamed one of the original twins with the vaccine had he not? It was no use convincing them that witches weren't beasts to be hunted, for Solomon had been founded for the very purpose of hunting witches.

Upon Toudou's demise Mio grew even colder towards everything, lost meaning fully and became nothing more than a puppet that followed orders blindly. She took another name as if shamed by her connection to Toudou and witches. She was the best hunter they had, all until an encounter changed her thoroughly. All that'd been suffocated beneath the surface broke loose and just like her sister she lost perspective within an instant. Mio still appeared the same, but inside her a maelstrom raged, demanding more.

Mio didn't need to glance at her sister to know she was unworthy of Toudou's dream. She'd given up on Mayu a long time ago and could not feel anything towards her twin now. She turned her attention towards Robin instead. Mayu could not forgive for this when she finally rose from the ashes of the Factory. Any barriers that would've held her down before were knocked down. She only wished for Mio and Robin's death.

* * *

He sensed her presence, overcome with both joy and sorrow. Is this how it would end finally: this charade of evade and escape when she grew bored of ignoring his presence under her ever-so-watchful eyes? Marcus had always known the hunter in the night would return for him, to return him to darkness. Part of him accepted this as the silent agreement that'd been struck when they had first met upon a time.

He straightened his arms, bringing them in front of him in the air, wrists tightly together as he surrendered his fate in her hands once more. Fighting was useless and not his desire, so now he only had one question to his old acquaintance:

"You could've picked me up any time you wanted to, so why now?"

Marcus didn't seem aged at all though it'd been many years since she'd last seen him with her own eyes. He'd gathered so many people under his wing, given them his everything so they'd have a place to live in and people to support them. He'd always believed that no matter how strong the fury was a witch could be saved from it. Robin was able to perform that miracle, fix what was broken. Mio didn't know if she had it in her to love a stranger that way and it somewhat tarnished her confidence in his company.

"I came to save you, Marcus," she said, taking a slow step forward and removing the black cap she usually hid her grey hair with. Marcus could tell why Robin hadn't been able to recognize Mio, for the years of separation had carved the two twins into two very different people. Mayu enjoyed inflicting pain, it made hers more bearable. Mio sought to correct the wrongs of the world but did she truly care any more than her sister did? No, her love was selfish, deluded – lonely even.

Robin was the empathic one of the three, the truly selfless one.

"My sister's dead. But it is only through this tragedy that I will save everyone… Marcus." Mio reached for the blonde haired witch but he shunned her touch, retreating as he could not make sense of his feelings. Mayu wasn't a good person; she'd killed several people just to feel something other than her own inner turmoil. She didn't deserve tears, and yet he couldn't just accept her death with cold calmness like Mio.

So the façade was gone and she no longer served to tame her own kind? Marcus hadn't known such straight-forwardness from her. They were barely familiar to one another, though they had so deeply affected each others' lives. It was a shame that he could only hear the truth from her lips now.

"You weren't testing anyone, were you?" He asked, seeking for an honest answer from her face. She didn't flinch or answer. "You knew Mayu wanted both of you dead, but didn't want to kill her yourself, so you made Robin do it."

His accusations were false, but Mio nodded to prove them right. She might've been indifferent towards almost everything but she didn't wish to kill her own sister herself – Because of this Marcus allowed himself to hope. For his hope she would lie and hide her tainted hands, pretend to be more than she was. Everything was to see hope on his face again.

"Hopeful?" Suddenly Mio wasn't stoic or distant but smiled the slightest bit. "That is why I came. I wanted to give you hope. Hope for a better tomorrow." She seemed brighter, relieved that he didn't look at her like she was a murderess anymore. She was glad that he understood. She really wanted him to understand.

All those years ago when she'd hunted him and given him hell, it'd been him to restore her faith in Toudou's dream. She'd convinced herself she didn't care, that the suffering of witches was something they had earned. Marcus had shown her the way. She'd needed to find the Eve, wait for her powers to awaken and then change the world. Together with Robin they could do it, they could bring forth light from darkness.

Although still strangers their lives had connected for the span of one encounter. Both had changed because of it, been given a new view of the world. "You came to save me?" He asked, returning their conversation to where it had started.

"You brought me back to life. The least I can do for you is to save yours."

She was serious, truly meant every word. He couldn't help fearing her truth though. He had seen Mayu's anger, the way she bended reality like a god and that had been Mayu's full power. He had never seen Mio's power at its limits; she'd barely needed to access to it at all while hunting him. Were there any limits to her besides the boundaries of her mind, which had already started to crack?

"Don't fear me, not anymore. I longer serve the greedy master," she tried to convince him, to reveal him the same truth she had seen. It would rejuvenate him, liberate him – she was sure of it.

"What master do you serve then?" Despite the fear, or the regrets he had, he still couldn't ignore the bond they'd had since their first meeting. They were like two lodestones drawn together no matter what the distance. The connection didn't exist with anyone else: not with Mayu, or Robin. Only Mio made him feel this way.

"Only myself and a sense of justice."

She wasn't alone in this world, even she had her match: Someone who didn't look down on her for who she was - Someone who didn't call her monster. During the years she'd spent in finding Robin, preparing for their destiny, she'd always found herself looking at his general direction, feeling his anger or suffering when she'd had doubt. By now it felt like she'd always been with him. This affinity she felt for him – Robin would call it love, wouldn't she?

"Be my Adam," Mio requested, offering him her hand.

When she'd hunted him they'd been caught in a standstill for awhile, or so he'd believed before learning of her vast Craft. During that time he'd questioned her loyalty, her blind faith in the organization she served. But it hadn't been the truth that'd kept her listening had it? No, her eyes were always upon him, pensive and sad. She would listen to him now, wouldn't she?

"Please. Just stay here, let your dreams of Paradise be nothing but dreams," he countered her request, including a condition for his surrender though his heart needed none.

"No," she shook her head, that loving expression still on her face and that hand still reaching for his. "I can give you a world without tragedy: A loving world that nurtures each of its own."

But she really didn't realize that he wasn't asking her to, that he'd be content with just having her near and knowing she would no longer harbour those dreams. He'd learned one thing from her twin, and that was how limited a person's view could be; how even the Originals might not be worthy of their power.

If Mayu was dead by Robin's hand, then had to mean she already knew the heresy of Toudou's perverted dream. That she would kill to prevent it from ever coming true. Robin would kill her and he couldn't bear the thought despite her crimes and delusion.

He feared her and loved her at the same time, but could not defend her ideals. Mio saw herself as a champion, an avatar that was meant to see the truth of the world and then heal it. Alone she wasn't powerful enough, even with her Craft, but with Robin by her side she could do it. Mayu had resented the idea, borne wrath for her twin in her heart and wanted bury this ideal that Toudou had planted in her child's mind.

"I can see your doubt; it's suffocating you, holding you back. But there's nothing to fear, the cancer is gone and all that's left is a healthy heart that knows what it needs to do."

He was always in her thoughts; it was him she was building this new world for. Didn't he see?

A sudden convulsion in her body threw her off balance, made her fall over her knees and groan in pain. She was left shaking, clenching her teeth together in irritation. Again poisons climbed her veins, tried to put her back in line where she belonged. A freak on a leash, a force of nature they'd chained since childhood. Mio tore her bloodshot eyes from the floor she'd been staring and shot Marcus with a pleading look.

Marcus kneeled by her, tied his arms around her protectively. It felt calming, she could relax and slip into the painting where this nuisance was nothing but a disease she could remove almost too easily.

The vaccine really hurt when it came down full. The bastards had probably emptied more than one implant of the cursed substance into her system. Usually the implants slow-released depressants and the vaccine into her system to keep her vision vague, but now they were clearly trying to overdose her. How… pathetically desperate… Mio almost snickered but regained her focus quickly.

She focused on what was alien in her body. She hadn't bothered to remove the implants before in fear of alarming the organization before she was ready, so she'd carried them inside, knowing very well that one day they'd attack her like this; try and knock her out before she could resist and put her in a tank of her own. When compared to Mayu she'd been docile, it was why she'd lived unlike her twin.

With Mayu dead and Robin supposedly tamed by these same poisons, she wasn't needed to hunt anyone else. Or then they knew where her loyalties lied by now.

Marcus held her close, tried to calm her with his closeness, knowing very well how she'd ached for it. Mayu hadn't left out a single detail when she'd had the chance to blame him for her abandoning. He'd seen Mayu shake this way too, fighting the vaccine with all her might. It was why Mio had been alive for so long – because they had the means to control all three and believed they had nothing to fear from them as long as they had the vaccine. They had simply underestimated the limits of the Craft for all three had come to defeat the poison.

Mio groaned and forced the foreign substances from her body. It'd been awhile since she'd had to use the Craft in such a sophisticated manner, to extract substances from her bloodstream and her cells and then fix its effects. At the end of the day it was easy for her though, didn't even make her break sweat, and soon the burning in her veins was nothing but a memory and she was left in his arms.

He'd told Robin she always had a place here. He'd liked her, seen her as a little sister he was meant to guide and keep safe from Mayu until Mio would come. If he followed his heart, she would never be welcome here again. Her hands would taint in Mio's blood and his heart would be broken. If he abandoned Mio now, he couldn't go on thinking there was a better tomorrow in store for him anymore.

"They will come here to stop me and I will kill them in the name of a new world." Her voice was more confident. She no longer begged for his acceptance. She looked at him behind her grey pangs, green eyes more animate than they'd been for years.

Through her eyes he was struggling with his decision, seeing more truth in what he assumed was Robin's way, but feeling his heart pull him towards her. But there was nothing she could say to convince him, the vision told her that much. She put her hand over his lips, worried that his prediction was true and that there was no way to reach Paradise even with her divine hands. Her fear vanished in time, and she quivered.

If she wanted to, she could make him take her hands. She couldn't say she wasn't tempted; she had been patient for him and given him time to realize her dream and love. Their fates were entwined. Why was he refusing to see that?!

Her hand slid from his face and onto the collar of his shirt. She squeezed it inside her fist, refusing to wait for him to sort the confusion in his mind as her task would not wait. "I forgive you," she whispered, before pulling herself from the floor and leaving his side.

"You may not appreciate it now, but I will reshape the world and remove its rotten core, because it's that simple for me. Just like removing poison from my own body."

Marcus looked up at the avatar that towered above his fragile being. The dilemma forced him still when Mio turned her back on him and walked out.

Before things had been clear: pristine even. Now all he had left was despair, for one of those two would not return from their tryst alive. The death of Mio meant the death of him, but the death of Robyn… it had to mean the death of the world.

* * *

_  
Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the Coven sank in the dark_

_Was there a road we could take? _

_Hidden – In the Open_

_A better reason for this_

_I lived for you _

_Your treachery blinded me_

_Because your dream was always ugly _

**'Paradise'**

* * *

**  
A/N: **No poems this time around either. 


	11. Paradise

A Devil May Cry: _'Paradise'_

Sadness was in the air. The passing hours had dulled Robin's pain, but removing it wasn't in their power. She'd always wished for a family and when she'd found her true sisters, she'd allowed herself to hope despite Mayu's hatred and Mio's absence. That hope was gone now.

The sorrow she felt for Mayu's death was full of regret and pity, for the child she had seen in her vision had been beautiful. It was Toudou's fault that Mayu had become such an incomplete person. And yet Robin could only think that this could've been her fate as well. She could've spent her life suspended in a tank, incapable of using her Craft, or even forming a coherent thought.

Humans were cruel, even though they accused witches of being monsters. Robin knew of the design flaw in her kind, but humans had no such excuse. They abused their power and let fear govern their lives willingly, whereas for witches madness was caused by the imbalance their powers caused in their brain. Robin was able to fix her kind, but humans? There was nothing to fix.

Amon was tying his shoelaces on the couch, preparing. His gun was on the table, witch-hunting bullets scattered by its side. He'd avoided looking at it for awhile now, concentrating in tidying his appearance and keeping an eye on Robin. She was so shaken by her earlier encounter. He'd seen her weak and vulnerable several times before, but her hopefulness had always remained. This time he wasn't sure she'd escaped unscathed though.

Before when she'd told him about the two sisters and who Mio really was, her voice had been distant. It was as if her perception was different somehow. Amon suspected Mayu had given Robin more of herself than Robin realized. The memories and emotions she'd transferred to Robin could've very well included a seed of hatred meant to taint her gift of empathy, which was the only thing that separated her from a fallen witch.

The thought was disturbing, yet he couldn't shake it. Robin had returned to him reformed, a changed person. His sense had told him to prepare himself for the inevitable, for the signs were clear to him. It was his heart that refused to believe there was nothing else to do but hunt her. Perhaps if he could kill Mio, the source of this madness, he might be able to keep Robin from being consumed by the disease of the Originals as well. Amon wanted to believe in Robin and stay his hand, yet he couldn't just stand by and hope for the best.

"You want to kill her, don't you?" Robin asked. She hadn't moved from her spot by the window for some time now. It wasn't in her character to pace around when she was deep in thought and frustrated, so she usually just did the opposite and stood still, calming herself in silence. It wasn't working this time around. She'd truly thought Amon had changed, that he was willing to trust her instead of trying to force his solution on her. Seeing him act like this was convincing her of the opposite.

Amon let her accusation sink in. She was right of course. "Mio is too dangerous to be kept alive. She has a purpose unlike Mayu and she is willing to kill for it," he explained and took his gun from the table. He then began inserting the witch-hunting bullets into the clip.

Robin sighed deeply. He stood no chance against Mio. Only she could stop her, if that even was what she wanted. The more she tried to think about it, the more she felt the pain and suffering Mayu had gone through. The more she wanted to make sure no one else would ever have to suffer that way. And Mio claimed that they could change things. Who was she to say that this imperfect world didn't need changing?

"Because she's a witch and witches should be hunted?"

Amon was beginning to get frustrated with Robin. Her naïve way of looking at things like you could solve every problem without violence or death really unnerved him sometimes. Fallen witches did terrible things and Robin still couldn't cure them all, so in order to keep them from hurting others it was justified to hunt them. He knew better than anyone how deeply it hurt to lose someone to the Craft, but the only way to help was to hunt – Just as his mother had been hunted.

"Not all witches Robin," he settled to reply as he stood up from the couch. He was frightening when he stood up in his full height. "You know the damage the fallen ones can do."

Robin finally walked away from her spot and up to Amon. She loved him despite his faults and the damage of his unhappy childhood. And he loved her despite his hatred for witches. He really believed in her, he just couldn't spread that same faith to all witches. And round and round they went with this insane dance of theirs, always fighting about the same thing. At least now their fight was verbal.

Amon looked at her eyes again, seeing that hazy glow he knew and hated intimately. She was on the edge, just a step away from justifying evil deeds. And he knew Mio was strong in her delusion and power. Could she bend Robin to her will and make her cross the invisible line? No, Amon couldn't say these things to her, because Robin or any other witch simply couldn't see the point of no return and no words would change this. It was up to her strength to make the right choice.

"Mio doesn't have to be killed. You're only assuming that she's fallen, when there's a very good chance that Mio and I can actually make a difference." Robin wanted to judge Mio by herself instead of trusting Mayu or Amon's judgement. Mio couldn't hide her true self from Robin's Craft-filled eyes.

And just like that even though they were just a few steps apart, it was getting harder and harder to reach out and take her hand into his. She lived in an immortal painting, a reflection of the world and its secrets – this was a place he could not reach no matter how he tried. She had the power to do great things or horrible things, where his only gift was death. This love story between a human and a witch was so improbable... did they have any chance of succeeding?

Amon hadn't yet put his gloves on, so his hands were bare when he put them on her cheeks. "Then look deep into her soul Robin. Don't let your feelings cloud your sight."

Even he had expected their exchange of words to erupt into another heated argument. Instead he begged for her patience and trust. How strange…

Robin was enchanted with the way Amon held her face in his hands and pierced into her with his glare. His simple plead was no threat or command, just a request from someone she wanted desperately to trust. Maybe if she listened no one would have to get hurt? Amon would go to desperate ends to keep her safe, even sacrifice himself.

No… this time it wasn't just about the two of them, Amon was trying to protect many others as well. Mio needed Robin for something she couldn't achieve herself, despite her godly powers. Amon seemed certain it was something that would hurt a lot of people. A Paradise and an Eve… what did that make Mio into?

Robin put her hands on Amon's and smiled calmly. "Whatever lies in waiting, I will do the right thing, I promise."

They kissed softly, leaning for each other for support and protection: The Eve and her guardian.

* * *

{ Paradise is calling for us, Robin… }

Mio? Where are you? What have you done? I sense the blood on your hands.

{ I have broken free. I no longer fear anything, not even Solomon. }

Please Mio. Don't hurt anyone.

{ No one else needs to suffer ever again Robin. Come imouto-chan, let's go together. }

Where Mio?

{ Where it all began: The Factory. }

* * *

The skeleton of the Factory looked like nothing more than worn debris in the evening light. Robin was thankful that Mio had chosen such a far-away destination for their meeting. Here they could talk alone. No one else had to come and disturb them. She could decide for herself whether Mio could be trusted or not.

Yet the further Robin travelled to the center of the area, the clearer it became – Mio's Craft and its effect on this area: everything living was repelled except for Robin. Not even animals would venture here as long as Mio and she were here. Mio's Craft while uncontained was potent, even more so than Mayu's had been. It wasn't as clear either, no, Robin could tell Mio's handprint had brushed against many things here, but she left no permanent impression like Mayu did.

Mio stood by the ruins, bathed in sunlight and confidence. Her grey hair was loose and it framed her face messily, somehow making her more humane than she had appeared during their last encounter. Jeans and a loose shirt merely accompanied this image of a carefree young woman. Nothing about her spoke about this great evil Amon was portraying her as. Yet this way her looks were frighteningly similar to Mayu's.

Robin's hair was loose too. She'd put on her dress and boots, barely bothering with her looks. They didn't look at each other that much on a superficial level, when their Craft-filled eyes and the painting revealed so much more. The lines in both of them were golden by now – powerful and energetic. Nothing else in this world looked the same or resonated at such a beautiful frequency. It was easy to fool yourself and believe you were a god.

"Hello Robin," Mio said, making no effort to approach her.

"Mio…," Robin herself settled at a distance after hearing Mio's voice. It was a windy evening and the wind loved the play with their hair and the dirt on the ground. It almost reminded Robin of a bad western where the conflict would be solved by a dangerous game of quick draw. The sun had begun its descent and its light was much darker by now.

"Tell me about Toudou," Robin requested, hoping to hear a sweeter tale from Mio than what Mayu had shown her.

"He had a dream…," Mio began, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. "…That we could be a nobler race worthy of God." She finished with a smile, as if remembering her foster father with love. Then her expression changed and became void like a storyteller, who was not emotionally invested in the story she was telling.

"He learned to his horror that there was no God and lost his footing. Science became his god and when he found two twins in contact with nature, he sought to exploit that contact and become god himself."

Robin could see everything through Mayu's memories that had been passed on to her: Two girls in maroon dresses, speaking with the cosmos itself. They were children of nature, in balance with the painting until Toudou came for them. Although he looked like a calm loving man there was a frightening gleam in his eyes. He was corrupted from the moment he found them. The rest was a long spiraling fall into madness.

"He made us think he loved us while he hurt us. He needed to make us in his image."

Young Mio with her vivid eyes would look at Toudou, her father, with admiration. Mayu sensed something though and came to fear him. When Toudou told them stories of Paradise Mayu would protest as she was more tuned with the painting and knew the horrors of men, but Mio listened and believed in this dream.

"Mayu was weak and sick and I could not help her when she began to lose contact with reality. I knew they would hurt her, so I agreed to help in order to keep her alive. He said I would grow up and become powerful. He said we would change the world together."

Robin could see the agony in Mio's eyes. She saw them tear the twins apart. She saw them break Mayu while the conflicted fought to ensure that she would someday find her sister and save her. As the years went by and Mio looked at the drooling, unconscious sister who dreamed of violence and destruction, she realized there was no way to restore Mayu's mind. Mayu lived in the nightmares of this world, in the dark side of the painting to escape her own pain.

"I wasn't strong enough, so he made me you. You were so small and pure. I could see you were the start of something incredible. But we never got to be together, Robin, not before he was killed for his ideals."

So many things inside Mio turned into poison after her last thread broke down. Toudou was gunned down and the painting shook as he died. Mio's fall was quick, but she never let herself get out of control. Her sickness was barely visible; it gathered strength along the years and matured. She hunted her own without purpose until Marcus woke her up.

"I couldn't come to you until you were ready. But Mayu wanted to stop dreaming of me and you. She wanted everything to stop. If I hadn't stopped her, she would've destroyed everything."

Robin could see the blood on Mio's hands. She'd hurt her sister relentlessly. Mayu had been full of poison, but she had also wanted love. She'd wanted to be in her sister's arms. She'd wanted them to be together again, because nothing else had felt good. Mio's hand had reached into her and pulled her heartstrings out. The pain had been excruciating and as Mayu had run, she'd run to Robin.

"He might've been a flawed man, but he knew that the world needs us. We've made everything tainted; we've hurt this world so much… You and I can fix it Robin." Mio was looking at the painting and its countless imperfections. She looked at the colors that were entangled, yet strove to dominate the painting and drown everything in their path.

Finally Robin understood. Toudou's dream had been to remake the world. She was the Eve of this new world without sin or pain: A paradise.

And while it didn't sound so bad, something inside Robin told her to push her desires aside and listen for real.

"Together we're strong enough to take out the sadness, the pain and the despair. We can end the suffering of billions," Mio explained with moist eyes. She'd seen her share of terrible things: molested children, beaten wives, mistreated animals, men crippled by war, nature ravaged by greed. In her world there was no place for evil.

But the doubting voice inside Robin told her that this sounded too arrogant. She wasn't a god, just a girl. Who was she to say that the suffering of billions should be replaced with laughter? Would a world without disappointment lead to a rewarding life? Could it even be done, or was it just Mio's delusion? Was she so ingrained with her power that it made her blind to empathy, emotions?

Mio stiffened as if Robin had spoken her doubts aloud. "Nothing good comes without a price Robin," she said calmly and filled Robin's head with images. Robin screamed and her face twisted as she watched Mio's vision for the future: Meddling with the painting would have its sacrifices. Mio's judgment would strike down those with evil intent as she purified the world. It was with their lives that she would pay for the changes she intended.

Tears were falling down Robin's cheeks as she realized her hopes had been for nothing. Mio was stuck on an idea and it'd become an obsession for her. And while she thought she was doing the right thing, she wanted to hurt others just as much as Mayu had. Did the end result justify the means?

"No," Robin said, wounded by this observation. "I won't be your Eve, sister."

The images stopped and Mio tilted her head slowly, observing Robin. "I offer you freedom. A life with Amon without having to face discrimination for what you were born to be. Isn't that what you've wanted ever since you met him?"

In Mio's mind everything was simple. Robin's heart ached whenever evil had its way. Robin hated the injustice of this world as much as she did, so Robin had to want to purify it as much as she did. The painter in their sketch was long gone and unable to fix the mistakes in the image, but Mio could do her best to restore it back to its original glory. Robin had the same desires, so she should've been by her side – not against her!

Robin looked straight at Mio, seeing the confusion and anger in her clearly. "Your dream is fallacy, Mio. It would destroy more than it would fix. But our hands can fix the world one person at a time. I have seen the power of our touch and I know we can help our brethren and other lost souls find peace. " She tried to explain that she knew now how the Craft could save the world, yet she could see how Mio resented the thought. Her desire to change the world was selfish and she didn't care for the people she was supposedly creating this Paradise for.

"Fine," Mio finally gave up. "I thought you of all people would share my dream, imouto-chan."

Robin shook her head, defeated. "You're already lost Mio. Let me help you."

Mio saw it now, the secret she had been keeping even from herself: she looked strikingly similar to Mayu. Her lines were in disdain, their color corrupted. She had the power to become a god, but it had made her into a devil. Somehow realizing this gave her release and relief washed over her. She truly was lost.

A smile crept across Mio's face. Her heart had been heavy, but now she was free. Free from her chains and loneliness. "You're right," she said, "All I've wanted all along was to destroy, not create."

She sunk her hand into the painting, tearing at the strings furiously. "I'll destroy your dreams as well!" And she pulled Amon into the ground before her out of nothingness using her divine gift to bend time and space. He fell on his knees, wavering and bewildered. Mio sunk her hand into his back, unleashing a painful scream from him.

Robin's heart jumped and her senses screamed for him. He'd been right, she realized, while swallowing her tears and observing how Mio gained pleasure from watching their pain. Mio got out of control: the painting around her became more and more distorted every minute. She wasn't killing Amon yet, just inflicting pain, but that action wasn't too far in the future.

Would Mio make her choose between herself and Amon? Could Robin only submit to Mio's will or let Amon die?

"Stop!" She shouted, the painting around them quaking because of the strength of her divine voice. It didn't affect Mio as much, but she did turn her head to see Robin's pained face. Mio was pleased that her actions were having the desired outcome. She'd known in the back of her head that Amon was Robin's weak spot. Robin was still so new to the world, having been sheltered most of her life, so when she'd found love, she'd clung onto it desperately whether it was worthy of her or not.

"Why do you love him?" Mio asked, observing Amon as she had his essence bare in front of her. He was such a flawed being, governed by prejudice and instinct. But he did care for Robin and wish to protect her. Even he understood how precious Robin was, how unique. "He sought to hunt you then chain you and even now he's holding you back."

Amon growled again, feeling powerless in Mio's grip. All he could think about was Robin. He was being used against her. Mio was just as devious as Amon had suspected. He needed to break free and end this if Robin wouldn't. Given the chance he would end Mio.

Mio snorted and it turned into full-blown laughter, "He's thinking of ways to kill me so desperately. How can you stand by him and not feel disgusted by his hatred for our kind? How can you withstand the smell of our blood on his hands?"

Mio could see the deaths Amon had caused. The countless witches he'd hunted and humans as well. He was drawn to violence, because he still couldn't accept that the death of his mother had been injustice instead of the right thing to do. If he made himself believe that all witches should be hunted, then it would OK for her to have died like that as well.

Robin saw all of this as well, but unlike Mio she believed in change. She saw the seed of righteousness that existed within Amon. She saw the promise in him. It was because she saw promise in people that she couldn't outright condemn them based on the past alone. Things weren't black and white. It was her faith that had given Kane back his sanity. It was with her faith that she would end this cycle of destruction and save Mio as well.

"Torturing him will not change my mind. I cannot step on this path, Mio," Robin said with conviction and reached inside the painting. As soon as she did, Mio let go of Amon, who fell to the ground as weak as a child.

It was like two luminaries running across the sky, chasing one another: the way Robin and Mio fought. Amon's eyes couldn't quite keep up: all he saw were the two women standing in front of each other, quivering with power. It was almost like an inhuman aura around them, radiating power. He could tell they were moving, and yet it appeared they were standing still.

Thoughts still passed between them as they flew inside the painting, each trying to grasp the lines inside the other.

_Will you kill me now, Robin?_

_No, Mio, I will save you._

On the ground beside them, Amon was trying to gather his strength. His gun was still in its holster around his ankle, but his hands were aching and every move required tremendous willpower. He focused on Robin, knowing there wasn't much he could do to help her. Never the less he would give up everything to help her defeat Mio. Robin was the Eve, a source of purity for the fallen. Without her the world would eventually be renewed with flames as one new Mio after another would rise to finish what had begun today.

Robin's heart was racing as she moved quicker than ever before. She needed to be faster, stronger and smarter. She needed to evade and strike back harder than Mio could. But she was new to her power, whereas the Ultimate Craft had been within Mio all her life. Mio made everything seem effortless. Her eyes were full of sadistic excitement as she chased Robin finding new ways to attack.

Robin made a mental note of the way Mio kept shielding herself with one arm, while using the other to attack. Mayu had used both hands to maximize any damage, baring little regard for her own protection. Mio held onto life with iron grip instead. She desired to live, so Robin focused on that desire drilling into Mio's core with her Craft-filled eyes.

Such terrible emotions were locked within Mio's heart. The further Robin looked, the more she wanted to tear her eyes from her sister's very being. Prejudice, hate, jealousy, lust and fear governed Mio's experiences in life. Entire years were filled with nothing but the blackest memories of encounters with hateful humans. Do as is done to you by others had made Mio into a relentless machine. Sympathy had been drained from her: she'd locked every thought that contradicted her mission deep inside her heart and dreamt of a different life.

_You still dream of Marcus._

_Never look on the bright side of life, Robin. It will lead only to disappointment!_

And yet Robin deflected Mio's attack and look at Mio's vulnerable side. This love she had for a fellow witch was one of the few redeeming factors in her. Besides Marcus, Mio only cared for Robin herself. They were both symbols of a better world to Mio. It was for them that she was prepared to change the world with her hands of terror. So Robin held onto that.

Amon had the gun in his hand. He could barely grasp the weapon and keep it from shaking. He felt violated, wounded by Mio's touch. She truly was a devil in the making: twisted and evil despite being Robin's only kin. He watched them duel, understanding little of the spectacle he was witnessing. They weren't fully in this world, or fully within the painting.

Then Mio's hand cut Robin, sending her flying backwards. Blood burst from her chest and she coughed painfully. Her concentration was gone just like that as the pain tied her back to the real world. Mio appeared before her, observing her pain calmly. It was only a normal stab wound, so Mio hadn't been after her with her full power. This was all still just a game. Mio was trying to change her mind.

Mio took a step closer and then another. The side of Robin's dress was now covered in red. She was pressing the wound with her hand and her eyes were upon her approaching sibling. Mio cast a long shadow in the fading sunlight. Looking at Mio now, Robin couldn't quite connect her with the eager child that had explained to Toudou that her dream in life was to start a family and be a mother.

"I could've killed you Robin. Do you know why I chose not to?" Mio asked, brushing her grey hair from her face.

"I'm all you have left," Robin responded. As sad as it was, Mio was lingering with her decision to give into madness. She was still hoping there was a way to reconcile. That Robin would join her like Mio had always intended. Robin's smile was so sad when she faced her sister.

Their world shook with a bang. Robin's eyes spread wide and she shouted Mio's name, rushing forwards despite her injury. Mio fell to her knees pain radiating through-out her body. She was a god was she not? So how could such a simple thing harm her?

Amon lowered his gun, breathing heavily. The shot was clean and not fatal. He could've ended it but seeing Robin with Mio he'd remembered her plea. In the end he'd shed his tough skin and allowed himself to trust another.

Robin took Mio in her arms and reached into her chest with her hand. Mio's teary eyes looked at her with shock. Robin moved her hand with precision and then closed her hand into a fist. Mio gasped for air and then became still. Robin held onto her crying as she took back her hand.

When she finally looked at Amon who was lying on the ground, he could tell she was thanking him.

* * *

_Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the Coven sank in the dark_

_Greetings from the end of the world_

_we laughed_

_we cried_

_we loved_

_and now we close this silent circle_

**'Epilogue'**


	12. Epilogue

A Devil May Cry: _'Epilogue'_

The wind howled in the halls of the old mansion. Its halls were full of the thick scent of incense. Old carpets covered the wooden floors and the windows were covered with cloths. Amon paced from one end of the corridor to the other nervously, his wild black hair unleashed on his shoulders. His proud nose was broken and bruised but otherwise his appearance hadn't changed that much. His pale skin had become bronze, kissed by the sun on his long journeys.

Strangely though he felt quite at peace despite the worries he carried. He still remembered what it'd felt like, lying on the cold ground after Mio's torture watching Robin cry. He hadn't felt fear or anguish after that. Every new challenge paled in the face of their past experiences, yet he couldn't quite keep himself from feeling uneasy when he wasn't by side.

A door creaked not far away from him and he turned his attention to it. A small woman exited the room, weary from a long night. She had a healthy flush on her cheeks though, even when her eyes remained dark. Robin didn't her age at all nowadays. She'd seen more than other teens her age had by now.

Amon moved by her side, giving her support as she walked away from the room. Another patient had been taken care of and she would finally have rest for the night. Amon often had to tear her away from her duties, as her pure heart was too eager to help others. This had been another case like that. They housed the fallen here, Robin giving them back their sanity and life. She was curing the world one person at a time, but taking away the poison was exhausting some days. Amon stood by her side relentlessly and helped her carry this task.

They were still pursued where ever they went, but as the months flew by STN seemed less and less eager to find them. Perhaps the news of their work had spread onto their ears as well; perhaps they would take their time to perfect their vaccine before coming for Robin again. Amon heard only the rumors passed on by their friends and they moved around accordingly. Now Italy seemed like a safe haven, but a month from now it could become too risky.

Robin brushed her hair with her hand and yawned. She'd had to dig deep into this one. The witch had been a violent drooling lunatic and they had had to restrain her before she could begin her work. Fixing the madness was hard in some cases and easier in others. But eventually she found a seed a goodness that had survived their awakening. She took that seed and helped it grow, nurturing it until the darkness in the witch's heart was vanquished. It wasn't easy and there were days when she thought about Mio's way. When she saw the horrors her race had to endure while being hunted, she thought about what it would've been like to pick the easier way. But ultimately she had no regrets.

"Is she awake yet?" Robin asked, glancing up at Amon as they walked the silent corridors.

"They're both outside, moon gazing as she calls it," Amon answered. He no longer watched her every step, waiting for a relapse. Somehow everything about her was completely different now.

"Good, it's about time she goes outside on her own," Robin sighed.

She was glad to see Amon, as he'd been away for some time this time. He travelled in search of others in need of help. He identified them, passed the information along and made sure she remained safe while she cured them. But she felt lonely when he was away, even when many had stood by her after she had healed them. They were a family, living together, working together and maybe someday dying together.

Several of her friends had once been like the poor soul she had helped today: lost in their power, deluded and hurting. But Robin restored their faith and inspired trust in others. So one by one this family had come together, forming a protective circle around her. Amon had been the first and then… Mio.

Robin had peeled the shame, the hurt and sin from her. She'd held her sister tightly, refusing to give up on her. She'd looked into the abyss relentlessly and her reward had been the sister she'd never had. Amon had proved Mio wrong by being able to change, so Robin had made it her mission to prove Amon wrong. She'd given a second chance to someone, who didn't deserve it according to Amon.

Those first months had been tough. Mio's guilt and pain had been overflowing, but slowly Robin had helped her forgive. And as the poison had left her body, she'd learned to accept her memories and her past and slowly begun her new life. Amon knew they could've still instilled horrible pain onto the world, but he no longer believed they would. Mio was the proof that Robin truly was a new beginning for the race of witches.

They moved towards the front door with ease. Someone was always awake at this hour, making sure that nothing threatened their community. Amon had thought he would never get used to being surrounded by witches, but they all shared a common goal and slowly he had become friends with those he would've hunted in another lifetime. Now he walked these halls without being constantly alert. Someone was always watching over them.

The fresh outside air helped Robin keep awake despite her fatigue. It was dark outside and the moon was a giant in the sky. Robin realized she rarely looked at the painting anymore unless she needed to. She preferred to look at the world with her own eyes. Perhaps she avoided the temptation this way, even though Mio served as a constant reminder of what happened if one got too entranced by her own power.

"Any word from Japan?" Robin asked, hoping their friends had something to say. It was strange how their connection to STN-J had never suffered during these years and how their old friends still watched over them.

"The HQ has been quiet about you. Doujima suspects they might be compromised," Amon told her, knowing it was useless to hide these things from her. Robin didn't use her powers unless she absolutely needed to, knowing all too well that the connection to the painting would corrupt her if she let it. This is why she still needed others – to keep her heart in its place.

"I didn't think they would let me go so easily. Perhaps they are simply waiting," Robin admitted. There was always something in the horizon she couldn't predict and unless she was willing to change the world Mio's way, she never would be safe. This was a tougher road, but Robin was willing to hold onto free will even if it meant she was in constant danger.

Amon looked at the moon, realizing Mio had wandered a bit further from the house than usually, as he could not spot her close-by. "Do you think she should start using her powers again?" Amon asked. Like an addict, they had agreed it was better for Mio to steer clear from her Craft. But the uncertainty of the future worried him. Mio could very well be the champion Robin needed in order to survive.

Robin was shaken by Amon's question. He had truly changed. When she had first met Amon, he would've never trusted a witch. But slowly she had helped him understand them and love them – Even her sister.

"A day may come when Mio needs to cure me," Robin confessed. Her chest felt so heavy nowadays. The craft was a heavy burden and knowing that she could count on Mio to bring her back from the abyss as she had done to Mio, might be the thing to help her sleep at night.

Amon buried her in his embrace, holding her tight. "If you break, I will hold you down until she can."

In the distance Mio lay on the wet grass and looked at the stars. Beside her laid Marcus, his blonde hair covering his eyes as a messy cloud. Their limbs were entangled and their proximity kept both warm in the cool night.

When Amon had carried Mio through his doorstep, unconscious and delirious, Marcus had known Robin had succeeded. He'd been by her side when she had woken from her nightmares and fought the urge to take back her craft. Mio hadn't been able to give Marcus the world he had dreamed of, but she had given him her heart. To her surprise it had been enough.

What Marcus had started had been the basis of Robin's work. The witches freed from the Factory had all followed Robin upon her return and together they had fled Japan. Their community was strong now and Robin was its heart and soul. But Mio knew STN as well as she knew her sordid past. She knew they were still out there willing to freak havoc and destroy everything Robin was building here. It angered her, but at the same time she knew now was not the time for war. Now was the time for healing and building the battlements. Robin had freed her and shown her what a wonderful world this was despite its flaws. For this Mio would fight for Robin as long as there was blood in her veins.

"Do you think they're looking for us even now?" Mio asked aloud. Her voice was saturated with worry.

"Yes," Marcus responded solemnly.

"We need to protect her." Mio rose from her spot and looked back at the old mansion they had claimed for themselves.

Marcus followed her example. "Of course, she's our Eve."

* * *

THE END


End file.
